


To Be a Powerpuff Girl

by Master_Argus



Series: PPG Stories [3]
Category: Powerpuff Girls
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Universe, F/M, Near Future, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Redemption, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24218797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Master_Argus/pseuds/Master_Argus
Summary: Sequel to Against the Abomination. For her help during the Abomination incident, the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys have given Princess Morbucks a chance to join Team Powerpuff. They've been slow to trust her, but when HIM starts stirring up trouble, Princess faces her first real test as a Powerpuff Girl. Will she prove herself, or will she fall back into old habits?
Relationships: Boomer/Bubbles Utonium, Brick/Blossom Utonium, Butch/Buttercup Utonium, Mitch Mitchelson/Robin Snyder, Princess Morbucks & Original Character(s)
Series: PPG Stories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748089
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

Princess Morbucks awoke on a crisp Saturday morning. Before starting her morning routine, she sat in bed reflecting on just how much had changed in her life recently. It had been three months since she, the Powerpuff Girls and the Rowdyruff Boys teamed up and defeated the Abomination. Not only had that incident granted her superpowers, but for helping the heroes save the world, they finally made her a Powerpuff Girl. Well, a probationary Powerpuff Girl at least.

Since Princess and the Rowdyruff Boys joined Team Powerpuff, crime had dwindled dramatically in Townsville, helped by the fact that Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, Sedusa and the Gangreen Gang were still behind bars. Monster attacks had also ground to a halt. While taking on three superpowered kids was a challenge, taking on seven of them was straight-up suicide. Consequently, only four monsters had been stupid enough to attack Townsville in the past three months, all of whom Team Powerpuff annihilated.

While most people enjoyed the relative peace, Princess was concerned about what effect this would have on her probation. Today marked the halfway point in her probationary period, and thus far she'd had little opportunity to prove herself. She'd pulled her weight during the few monster attacks, but got dinged for hogging the spotlight afterwards. She'd also gotten dinged for use of excessive force in stopping the Amoeba Boys' jaywalking spree last month. And of course, Blossom still wouldn't let her live down that parade she threw for herself, even though she'd gotten a permit and everything. At this point Princess' position on the team was still uncertain. Something would need to happen soon if she wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl permanently.

A sudden knock on the door derailed Princess' train of thought. "Come in." she replied.

Princess' nanny opened the door and stepped into her room. "Good morning, Princess. Your bath is ready."

"Finally." With that, Princess floated out of bed and towards the bathroom.

*****

Brick, Boomer and Butch each took their seats at the breakfast table, awaiting Princess and her parents. The Morbucks' servants set the table and brought out enormous trays of bacon, scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles and just about every other breakfast food known to man, all prepared by Mr. Morbucks' master chefs, of course.

"Man, this is the life!" Butch shoveled about a dozen sausage links onto his plate. "Why didn't we let Princess join us when we were kids?"

"Because we were idiots, that's why." Boomer answered as he took a bite of his toast. "About everything." he added, still unable to fully forgive himself for the things he did to Bubbles.

"You know she's only letting us stay here to help secure her place on the team, right?" Brick interjected.

"So what?" Butch replied through a mouthful of meat. "In that case, I say we keep her."

"That's up to me and Blossom." Brick reminded his brother. Their conversation abruptly halted once Princess floated into the dining room and took her seat.

"Happy birthday, guys." she began. "You ready for the party tonight?"

"Oh yeah!" Butch replied, his brothers nodding in agreement. Today was the Rowdyruff Boys' 13th birthday, and for the first time in their lives, they would have a real party to celebrate it. Sure, Mojo baked them a cake every year, but that was more like a punishment than a celebration. The Boys gagged just thinking about it. But now they would have a real, edible cake, along with presents, party games, live music, and above all, friends to celebrate with. Switching from evil to good definitely had its perks.

"Thanks, Princess." Brick added. That phrase still felt weird coming out of his mouth.

"Don't mention it. I'll take any excuse to throw a party here." Princess grabbed some waffles with her tractor beam and set them on her plate. _How did I live without these powers?_

*****

Bubbles sat in front of the vanity. As usual, she put her hair into pigtails and tied them off. Then she donned her most prized possession, the turquoise bracelet Boomer gave her for her birthday. She held her left hand up to the mirror and smiled at her reflection. Buttercup floated behind Bubbles and narrowed her eyes at the bracelet.

"Are you seriously still wearing that thing?"

"You're just jealous Butch didn't get you one." Bubbles retorted. Buttercup rolled her eyes.

"Knock it off, you two." Blossom interjected. "You got their present, Buttercup?"

"Yep." Buttercup held up a small box wrapped in black wrapping paper.

"Alright." Blossom tied off her bow and fastened her hair clip. "Let's get going." With that, the Powerpuff Girls floated to their bedroom windows.

"Oh, Girls!" The Girls halted mid-flight and let out a collective groan. They turned to see their father, Professor Utonium, standing in the doorframe.

"What is it, Professor?" Blossom answered.

"Not much. Just have a good time." His tone then sharpened dramatically. "And be back before ten."

The Girls grumbled under their breath. "We will." They replied in unison before taking off for Morbucks Manor.


	2. Chapter 2

Before flying to Morbucks Manor, the Powerpuff Girls went next door to pick up their friend, Robin Snyder. Blossom rang the doorbell, then after a minute Robin emerged from the front door. She and the Girls exchanged greetings, then Blossom picked her up and the four of them took off.

"Been a while since I've been to this place." Robin said. "For good reason." She added, recalling Princess' attempt to sabotage her friendship with the Powerpuff Girls several years ago.

"Well, she's trying to do better now, if that's any consolation." Blossom said. "But she still has aways to go."

"Ah, forget about her." Bubbles smiled at Robin. "So, Robin, did we tell you Mitch is coming?"

"Oh, you guys." Robin rolled her eyes and smiled at the same time.

*****

Minutes later, the four girls arrived at Morbucks Manor. They touched down at the front door and were greeted by Princess' servant Alfred. After flashing their invitations, he let them in. The first person to greet them was none other than Princess herself.

"Hey, Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup and, um…" Princess closed her eyes and snapped her fingers trying to remember. "...Rowan?"

"Robin." she replied indignantly.

"Eh, close enough." Princess turned to the Powerpuff Girls. "If you're looking for your boyfriends, they should be…"

"Boomer!" Bubbles spotted her boyfriend floating by the snack table. As he turned to look at her, she flew straight at him and hugged him tightly. Boomer responded by hugging her back and giving her a kiss.

"I missed you so much." Boomer said to Bubbles.

"Jeez, you saw her yesterday at school." Butch said while munching on a cookie.

"Yeah, but that was a whole day ago." Boomer replied, then turned to Bubbles. "Hey, I want to show you something." Bubbles nodded, then the couple floated away, holding hands as they left the entrance hall.

"Hopeless." Butch shook his head. He then turned to his girlfriend. "Hey, Buttercup."

"Hey, Butch." she replied. "Did Mitch bring the goods?"

"You bet I did." Buttercup turned around to see her and Butch's friend, Mitch Mitchelson. He handed a gift bag to Butch. "Happy birthday, dude."

Butch reached into the bag and pulled out a copy of Call to Action 6. His eyes lit up at the gift. "Nice! Thanks, man."

"Ooh, is that the new Call to Action?!" Robin suddenly appeared next to Buttercup.

"Oh, yeah." Mitch replied, smiling at Robin. "Wanna come play with us?"

Butch caught on and decided to help his friend out. "Yeah, come on!" he said to Robin.

Robin smirked at her friends. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you." Butch then led her, Mitch and Buttercup to the TV room, leaving Blossom alone with Princess.

"Brick's probably in the Boys' room." Princess pointed to the west corridor. "Sixth door on the right."

"Thanks." Blossom wasn't surprised. None of this party stuff really seemed like Brick's cup of tea. Or hers, for that matter. Blossom looked around and didn't see much that appealed to her, least of all the band Princess brought in to play tonight. "Solid Bold, huh? I'm surprised you didn't get the Beat-Alls." Blossom quipped.

"Hmph! Sorry to disappoint you, but two of them are in jail and one hasn't been seen in months." Princess replied sarcastically. "But if you want to hear some of my solo work…"

"No! Please, no!" Blossom interjected. "I'm gonna go see Brick." She then floated down the hallway. Princess simply shrugged and went back to mingling with the other guests.

*****

Brick sat in his and his brothers' room browsing the internet on his laptop. As excited as he was about the birthday party at first, it turned out it wasn't really his thing. Being a villain for most of his life, social gatherings like this were new territory for him, and he wasn't as quick to adapt to it as his brothers apparently were. In all honesty, he'd rather just have a quiet evening alone with…

Suddenly, Brick heard a knock at the door. He floated out of his chair and opened the door to see the one person he'd been waiting to see all day. "Hey, Brick. Happy birthday." Blossom said softly.

Brick smiled at her. "Come on in." As soon as they were inside, Brick shut the door. He then closed his eyes, embraced Blossom and kissed her a solid minute. Once they eventually broke apart, they each sat down on Brick's bed.

"Where'd that come from?" Blossom asked, still a bit flustered.

"I've been lonely." Brick replied. "This party isn't quite what I expected."

"I'll say." Blossom agreed. "Seriously, Solid Bold?"

"Ugh, that Summertime song is gonna play in my nightmares tonight."

"Well, you're still coming out for cake and presents, right?"

"Of course." That was the one thing Brick was looking forward to, aside from seeing Blossom.

"We've got some time before that." Blossom reminded him. "What do you want to do until then?"

Brick put his arm around Blossom's shoulders. "Let's just stay here and enjoy each other's company."

Blossom smiled and rested her head on Brick's shoulder. "Sounds like a plan."

It was funny to think that not even a year ago, Brick was bent on destroying Blossom because he believed it was his sole purpose in life. And now she was the love of his life. She was the reason he fought, the reason he got up every day, and the reason he drew breath. In a way, that was also true back when he was trying to destroy her. It seemed that either way his life revolved around Blossom. But that didn't matter. Being with her was Brick's choice, and he couldn't have been happier with it.

*****

"Just a little further." Boomer said. Bubbles had kept her eyes closed as per Boomer's request. Boomer took her by the hand and led her to the surprise. "Ok, you can open them now." he said after they floated through a door.

Bubbles opened her eyes and gasped as she found herself in Princess' stable. In truth, the smell kind of gave it away beforehand, but she still acted surprised, and was no less excited to see all of Princess' horses. After thanking Boomer with a kiss on the cheek, Bubbles flew around greeting and petting each one while Boomer took a seat on the bench. Once she was done, she sat down next to her boyfriend.

"How'd you know I like ponies?" Bubbles said to Boomer in jest.

"They're horses, Bubbles. There's a difference." Boomer reminded her, then looked upward. "Just like our first date."

"Yep." Bubbles giggled. "Hey, Boomer." When he turned to look at her, she slapped both of his hands. "That's my horse!"

Boomer smiled at her, but it quickly faded. He then sighed and turned away from her.

"What's wrong?" Bubbles asked as she put her hand on his shoulder.

"You must've been waiting years for something like that to happen. And all that time, I was…" Boomer couldn't even finish his sentence before choking up.

"Oh, Boomer…" Bubbles pulled him in for a hug. "How many times do I have to tell you? I forgave you for all that stuff." she added after they pulled apart.

"I know, it's just… I wish I'd realized it sooner. We could've been together a long time ago if I wasn't so stupid."

"I don't think so." Bubbles said. "Our families wouldn't have allowed it anyway."

"We could've kept it secret." Boomer said. "We'd be just like Romeo and Juliet."

Bubbles grimaced. "I hope you don't mean _exactly_ like them."

"Why? Don't their families stop fighting and they all live happily ever after?"

Bubbles shook her head and smiled. "You're lucky you're so cute." With that, she leaned in and kissed him.

As he returned the kiss, Boomer took a moment to appreciate the fact that, even if it was long overdue, he and Bubbles were together now. He didn't have to worry about Mojo or HIM's disapproval anymore, and even his brothers were fine with him being with Bubbles. Heck, they were even dating her sisters. These past three months had been the best of Boomer's life, and as long as he had Bubbles by his side, the good times would only continue.

*****

Butch, Buttercup, Mitch and Robin sat in the TV room playing Call to Action 6 on Princess' enormous TV. To no one's surprise, Robin was wiping the floor with the other three, though Mitch managed to put up some semblance of a fight. The timer ticked down to one minute left when Robin scored another kill against Butch.

"Grr, you haven't won yet." Butch grumbled as he waited to respawn.

"Don't kid yourself." Buttercup responded, then turned her attention to Robin. "Why do we even bother against you?"

"I've often wondered that myself." she replied.

The timer hit zero, then the game displayed their scores. Robin took the lead with twenty-two kills. Mitch landed a distant second with nine while Butch and Buttercup didn't even break four.

"Man, where'd you find the time to get so good?" Mitch asked, then scooted closer to Robin. "You must be pretty lonely." he added, smiling at her and attempting to put his arm around her shoulders.

"Nice try, Mitch." Robin waved him off. "You'll have to do better than that."

"Hey, Mitch, you want my advice?" Butch said. "Try watching some horror movies with her. It worked on Buttercup."

"Shut up, Butch!" Buttercup interjected, but Butch kept going.

"I showed her Spore vs. Evil Tim once. Next thing I knew, she was all mine." Butch put his arm around Buttercup.

"Really?" Mitch asked.

"I'm warning you." Buttercup grumbled.

"Yeah!" Butch answered Mitch. "She was all like 'Oh, Butch, I'm too scared to sleep alone tonight. Please, hold me in those big, manly arms of…'"

"Okay, you asked for it!" Buttercup broke away from Butch and tackled him. The green couple then started exchanging blows in their usual manner. Completely unfazed by their fight, Mitch got up and looked through Butch's DVDs on the shelf. He pulled out Spore vs. Evil Tim and turned back to Robin.

"Up for it?"

"Sure." Robin replied. "Too bad I don't scare easy."

"We'll see." With that, Mitch popped in the DVD and the two began watching.

*****

After a while, it came time to bring out the Rowdyruff Boys' cake. Their guests offered to sing Happy Birthday, but the Boys declined and proceeded to blow out their candles. Unfortunately, Brick forgot to turn off his fire breath and accidentally set the cake on fire.

"Oops." He turned to his brothers. "Sorry, guys." Boomer and Butch grumbled at him while Blossom put the flames out with her ice breath.

"Saw it coming." Princess said. She then turned to her butler. "Jeeves, bring out the backup cake."

"Right away, Princess." Jeeves left for the kitchen. Moments later, he came back with an identical birthday cake and began cutting it up and passing the slices out. As the guests munched on their cake, the Rowdyruff Boys made their way over to the present table. They decided to start with the Powerpuff Girls' present to all three of them.

Brick picked up the small black present Buttercup had placed on the table and opened it. Inside were three tickets to the Townsville Demolition Derby next Friday. After he showed them to his brothers, they all turned to their Powerpuff counterparts.

"We thought it'd make a nice triple date." Buttercup said, waving her and her sisters' tickets in her hand. "Well, I did at least."

"Awesome!" Butch exclaimed. "You're the best, Buttercup!"

"You're the best, Blossom!" Brick said.

"You're the best, Bubbles!" Boomer said. The Boys then fell silent and stared at each other awkwardly, realizing the conundrum they'd put themselves in.

"I think I can settle this." Princess interjected. "Come around back and I'll show you my present." The Boys began following her outside, but before they left, Princess turned to the Powerpuff Girls and gestured for them to follow. "It's really for the whole team."

*****

Princess led the rest of the team out back to a large metal silo. She then floated up to a keypad and punched in a code. "I got Professor Utonium to help me with this. I know you guys were a bit upset about it after the Abomination thing. So, without further adieu, I present to you…" The silo opened to reveal a familiar giant robot. "…The new, improved Powerpuff Dynamo!"

The Girls let out a collective sigh while the Boys stared at the Dynamo in awe.

"You really outdid yourself this time, Princess." Brick stated.

"I thought we'd never see you again." Boomer said to the robot.

"I call gunner next time!" Butch shouted.

Blossom shook her head. "Princess, this thing's way too impractical to use in the city. Not to mention destructive."

"And a total eyesore." Buttercup added.

"What if someone hijacks it?" Bubbles pointed out. "It's happened before."

"Don't worry. The Professor and I added some countermeasures." Princess replied. "It won't turn on unless there's at least three pilots, and those pilots have to have Chemical X powers in order to operate it. And in the event an intruder gets in, it'll automatically trap them inside until one of us lets them out."

"I'm sold." Brick said.

"I dunno…" Blossom mumbled.

"There's a couple more precautions that…" All of a sudden, the alarm went off on Blossom's phone, cutting Princess off. Blossom checked to see that it was 9:55.

"Sorry, we gotta go." Blossom turned to her sisters. "You know how the Professor's gonna get if we miss curfew."

"Pft, so lame." Buttercup pouted.

"See you later, guys." Bubbles said to the Rowdyruff Boys. "Happy birthday."

All three couples approached one another and kissed each other goodbye. Then the Powerpuff Girls went inside to fetch Robin and take off for home. Princess simply rolled her eyes. _Yep, still not used to it._

*****

Once the party was over, Princess changed into her nightgown and floated into bed. She then turned to her nightstand and grabbed the trashy romance novel she'd been reading, a guilty pleasure she'd picked up a while ago. Perhaps it was to help fill the void she sometimes felt from being the only single member of Team Powerpuff. Maybe someday her Prince would come, but for now, she had other things to worry about, like being a Powerpuff Girl.

As she read her book, she began to sense an evil presence, then noticed a red haze appear on the floor. Princess knew very well what came next, but by this point it barely even registered to her. She simply continued reading as HIM manifested in a chair in the corner.

"Hello, Princess. I trust everything is going well."

"I was wondering when you'd show your ugly face again." Princess replied, not bothering to look up from her book. "What do you want?"

"Just to let you know that I have a new plan to destroy the Powerpuff Girls, and those treacherous boyfriends of theirs." HIM replied. "Interested?"

"You want me to help you destroy my teammates?" Princess paused, pretending to mull it over. "Gonna have to pass. Pretty sure that'd violate my probation."

"Listen, you little brat! I'm only giving you this chance because I think there's still hope for you!" HIM screamed. "If you don't join me, then you'll perish along with them!"

"Oh, I'm so scared." Princess snarked. "You've been trying to destroy the Powerpuff Girls for years, and look where that's gotten you. You're just as hopeless as all the others."

HIM had no response. He merely sat there scowling at Princess.

"Why don't you go help the Amoeba Boys with their next orange heist?" Princess continued. "With your help I'm sure they could nab a whole grapefruit."

HIM stood up and conjured a portal leading back to his home dimension. "We'll meet again soon enough." He looked down and pointed at the book she was reading. "Oh, and Jason leaves Lilly for Veronica in the end." He then stepped into the portal, laughing maniacally as it closed behind him.

Princess grumbled and tossed her spoiled novel aside. Whatever HIM had in store for Team Powerpuff, Princess was reasonably confident that they could handle it. After all, if the so-called Ultimate Evil couldn't defeat three little girls, what chance did he stand against all seven members of the team? Assured of their coming victory, Princess turned out the lights and nodded off.


	3. Chapter 3

The morning after the party, Blossom flew to Antelope Coffee. She ordered some coffee and took a seat near the door awaiting Brick and Princess. As they did every other Sunday, the three of them would meet up to discuss Princess' progress. For the past few meetings, they didn't have much to discuss, and it seemed like this one would be no exception.

After about ten minutes, Brick and Princess arrived at the coffee shop and went to order their drinks. Seeing them coming in together always kind of irked Blossom, even though she knew they both lived at Morbucks Manor and would logically arrive at the same time. Blossom shook it off as Brick sat down next to her. Princess then took her seat across from the red couple.

"So, anything new to go over?" Brick asked Blossom.

"Just…" Blossom turned to Princess. "Why the Dynamo?"

"I told you, I took precautions." Princess replied. "It's there if we need it, and it'll stay safely locked away until we do."

"Let's hope you're right." Blossom said.

"Well, it has been pretty quiet lately." Brick said. "Odds are we won't be using it for a while." He let out a disappointed groan. Blossom rolled her eyes in response.

"Well, actually…" Princess began. Blossom and Brick listened intently as Princess tried to find the right words. She was concerned about how they'd react to it, but decided they needed to know. "HIM came to see me last night."

"What?!" Blossom recoiled a little.

"Yeah." Princess replied. "Apparently he has a new plan to destroy you. He asked if I wanted to help…"

"And did you?" Brick interrupted.

"No!" Princess snapped. "I told him to shove off." She shot a dirty look at Brick. "You could give me some credit, considering your track record."

"Hey, I've earned my place on the team."

"Please. You dated your way onto the team." Brick shot Princess a death-glare in response. She returned the favor.

"Alright, enough!" Blossom said. Brick and Princess fell silent. "Princess, what did HIM tell you?"

"Not much, just that he had a new plan. Then he just left." Princess took a sip of her tea. "But, hey, HIM's never beaten you before. We've got nothing to worry about."

"We shouldn't underestimate him." Brick said. "You know what he's capable of. Clairvoyance, interdimensional travel, mind control, reality-warping, you name it. He can even bring back the dead."

"Right…" Blossom agreed. She felt a small twinge of guilt at what Brick said. "We need to stay alert."

Princess rolled her eyes. "Suit yourselves." She then changed the subject. "So, anyway, are you ready to make me a Powerpuff Girl yet?"

Blossom lowered her head. "I don't know…"

Princess grumbled. She then turned to Brick, who responded with a shrug. "Fine!" Princess got out of her seat. "I suppose you two lovebirds want some alone time." She then floated outside and flew home.

"It's that attitude of hers." Blossom said. "She only wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl to boost her own ego. That hasn't changed since kindergarten."

"Don't tell me you don't enjoy the hero-worship, either." Brick said.

Blossom narrowed her eyes at him, but quickly realized she couldn't argue with that. "Well, yeah… but that's not the main reason. My sisters and I fight because we genuinely want to make Townsville a better place. Protecting the people comes first. If Princess cares more about herself than the well-being of others, I can't trust that Townsville will be safe in her hands."

"I guess that makes sense." Brick agreed. "So, what do we do about HIM?"

"No idea." Blossom took a sip of coffee. "We'll just have to wait and see."

*****

After second period English on the following Monday, Butch exited the classroom. He floated around for a minute before meeting up with Buttercup.

"How do stand going to school every day?" Butch let out a heavy sigh. "It's so boring."

"Yeah, well, you get used to it." Buttercup replied.

Part of the deal for staying at Morbucks Manor was that the Rowdyruff Boys had to attend school. Obviously this was new territory for them, and while Brick adapted fairly easily, Boomer and Butch weren't so quick on the uptake, especially Butch. Spending hours upon hours learning useless junk like history, algebra and physics made him want to punch a hole in something. Or someone. But no, he and his brothers were good guys now, which meant no more senseless destruction to keep him entertained.

Then he took a look at Buttercup, and remembered that being with her made it all worthwhile. Not that he'd ever admit it.

On their way to gym (the only class Butch actually kind of enjoyed), the green couple passed by Mitch. Buttercup could tell something was off about him, but Butch either didn't notice or didn't care. He went right up his friend and asked him how things went last Saturday.

"Dude, that movie was messed up." Mitch replied. "I'll never look at crows, pancakes or the letter Q the same way ever again."

"You wuss." Butch taunted. "What about Robin?"

"What about me?" Robin suddenly appeared behind the group. Buttercup and Butch jumped a little, but Mitch's reaction was much more pronounced.

"You really need to stop sneaking up on us like that." Buttercup said.

Robin didn't respond. Her attention was on Mitch. "Are you still traumatized from that stupid movie?" she asked.

"Maybe a little…" Mitch replied meekly.

Robin shook her head, then grabbed Mitch's hand. "C'mon, let's get you to class."

"Hold me." Mitch said in the same meek tone. Robin rolled her eyes, but gave him a quick hug before walking with him to class, leaving Butch and Buttercup alone.

"Am I a genius or what?" Butch said.

"Please, you just got lucky." Buttercup retorted.

All of a sudden, Butch turned to her. He placed his left hand on her side and his right hand on her cheek. "Boy, did I ever." He then pulled her in, closed his eyes and kissed her. Buttercup couldn't help but embrace him and return the kiss. Once they pulled apart, Butch smirked at her.

"See?" Butch jabbed Buttercup on the arm. "Genius." Buttercup merely floated there, grumbling in defeat. Then the bell rang, and they sped off to the gym.

*****

Once lunchtime rolled around on Wednesday, Bubbles and Boomer went to eat with Bubbles' friends. Normally the nauseatingly inseparable couple would eat by themselves, but Bubbles started to feel a bit guilty about it a while back. She decided that she and Boomer would spend each Wednesday with Mike, Clara, Mary and Julie, as well as Brick, the only one of their siblings they shared their lunch break with.

Of course, they still couldn't help reminding the others just how nauseatingly inseparable they were. Before sitting down, Bubbles and Boomer grabbed each other's hands and kissed right in front of everyone, which was met with several eyerolls and headshakes.

"Okay, we get it." Julie complained. "You don't have to rub it in our faces."

"Hey, we all knew this was coming." Mary reminded the group. Boomer and Brick shot her a quizzical look. "Seriously, Bubbles has been crazy about you since forever." she said to Boomer.

"Huh?" Bubbles said. "I never told any of you guys about that."

"Yeah, but it was still super obvious." Mike replied. "I'm honestly surprised Blossom never picked up on it." He turned to Brick. "No offense." Brick simply shrugged in response.

"Wish I'd picked up on it." Boomer mumbled, then let out a sigh. Bubbles gave him that same are-you-still-moping-about-that look she always did when he got like this.

"Hey, if there's anyone to blame, it's me." Brick intervened. "I should've realized a long time ago that Mojo and HIM were just using us."

"And that you were in love with Blossom, right?" Bubbles added.

"Yeah, that too." Brick admitted.

"So it's settled. It was all Brick's fault." Clara said. Brick shot her a death-glare.

"Yeah, I can live with that." Boomer agreed. Brick turned and shot him a death-glare, too. Boomer ignored his brother and simply grabbed Bubbles' hand, staring at her. Bubbles stared back, and the blue couple each smiled a sickeningly sweet smile as they became lost in each other's eyes.

Brick grumbled. _Should've let him keep moping._

*****

At long last, Friday night had arrived, and the demolition derby was happening soon. The Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys made a beeline straight to Townsville Arena as soon as school let out. Buttercup and the Boys could hardly wait, though Blossom and Bubbles not so much. Once inside the arena, the three couples took their seats as the derby started.

Not even five minutes in, Blossom was bored out of her mind. Looking back, she had no idea how she let Buttercup talk her into this. Brick seemed to be enjoying himself, though. "Didn't think you were still into this kind of thing." Blossom said to him. "I figured your tastes would be more refined."

"I'm a thirteen-year-old boy. Cut me some slack." Brick then saw one of the minivans run into another car and get flipped upside down on impact. "Ooh, he's not getting up from that!" Brick shouted.

Blossom glanced over to Buttercup and Butch. Unsurprisingly, Buttercup was just as into this as Brick and Butch were. This whole triple date was Buttercup's idea after all. Blossom turned to see if Bubbles was having as miserable a time as she was. "Hey Bubbles, are you…?" Blossom stopped when she saw Bubbles and Boomer making out.

Bubbles pulled away from Boomer and turned to Blossom. "Huh? What is it?"

Blossom sighed. "Never mind."

"Okay." Bubbles turned back to Boomer. The blue couple then resumed their game of tonsil hockey. A car exploded shortly after and neither of them seemed to notice.

Blossom turned her attention back to Brick. Even though they'd been together for three months now, the idea of them dating still felt a bit weird. Blossom, the leader of the Powerpuff Girls, had fallen in love with a supervillain. As a hero, she had an image to maintain. And aside from possibly ruining her reputation, the whole idea just seemed wrong.

At least, it did at first. But Brick wasn't a villain anymore. Now he was a hero. Her hero. Not to mention Brick was smart, cunning, mature (save for a few of his interests), and though Blossom had a hard time admitting it, devilishly handsome. With that in mind, Blossom understood what she saw in him, and why being with him felt so right.

Suddenly, Blossom's phone went off, snapping her out of her trance. Apparently Princess tried to call.

*****

Rather than join her teammates and feel like a third (well, seventh) wheel, Princess simply went home after school. The first place she went was to the VR training room, both to practice and to let out some pent-up frustration. Three months and Blossom and Brick still wouldn't let her be a real Powerpuff Girl yet, apparently because of her "attitude" or whatever. Perhaps taking it out on a virtual copy of Mojo Jojo would make her feel better.

After about half an hour of blowing up holographic robots, Princess stepped out of the training room. She grabbed a towel to wipe the sweat from her forehead. Then she retired to her bedroom to lie down. Unfortunately, her frustration hadn't quite subsided, but she did take some solace in the fact that Blossom was stuck at a demolition derby of all things. The pink Powerpuff Girl must be going crazy from boredom by now. Princess chuckled to herself imagining it.

Suddenly, she heard a loud crash coming from the main entrance, followed by several of the Morbucks' servants running and screaming. Princess floated up off her bed and out into the main hall to see what all the ruckus was about. To her surprise, someone had crashed through the north wall, leaving a large hole in it. Princess took a look at the intruder and recoiled.

The intruder looked like a deformed, hunchbacked Powerpuff Girl. She was about three times bigger than the other Powerpuff Girls. Her dress and eyes were light purple and her hair was brown and tied into a ponytail. Once she caught sight of Princess, the monstrous Powerpuff narrowed her eyes and shouted "Princess bad!"

Princess turned to one of her butlers as he ran past her. "Hey, you!" The butler stopped to listen. "Tell everyone to evacuate the mansion. I can handle this monstrosity." Princess floated in front of the malformed Powerpuff Girl as the butler fled, shouting for the others to run. "Look, I don't know what your deal is, but…" Princess was cut off when her enemy rushed in and punched her, knocking her through the wall and into another room.

"Ow!" Princess groaned, rubbing the side of her head as she got up. Her foe flew in and kicked Princess while she was down, knocking her into the wall. "Alright, that's it!" Princess recovered and blasted the deformed Powerpuff Girl with her yellow laser, then slammed into her at full force, crashing through yet another wall and into the Rowdyruff Boys' bedroom. Princess telekinetically grabbed Butch's bed and smashed it over the enemy's head. The deformed Powerpuff Girl retaliated by grabbing Brick's and throwing it at Princess, sending her flying into the hallway, breaking the door on the way out.

Princess quickly took cover in another room. "Who is this freak?" she quietly asked herself. Perhaps she was created by HIM? Regardless, she was clearly too much for Princess to handle on her own, especially after being worn out from training earlier. She pulled out her phone and tried to call Blossom, but after the first ring, the mutant Powerpuff burst into the room and blasted Princess with her eye beams, frying Princess' phone. With no other options, Princess glared at her enemy and retaliated with her own eye lasers.

For several minutes, the superpowered girls continued exchanging blows and tearing up Morbucks Manor. Eventually, the purple Powerpuff Girl came out on top. Princess lay in a crumpled heap at the enemy's mercy. But before she could deal the final blow, she stopped dead in her tracks and began to tremble. A look of worry and confusion crept onto her face. Princess managed to pick herself up just in time to see beams of white light shoot out from the malformed girl's body.

"What the…?" Princess said. Then her foe exploded in a burst of white light.

*****

The Powerpunk Girls, Berserk, Brat and Brute, stood atop the Dynamo's storage silo observing Morbucks Manor. Once they saw their monstrous cohort burst into the mansion, Berserk gestured to her sisters. "That's our cue." She then floated down to the number pad and began examining it.

"How come we got stuck doing this?" Brat complained as she followed Berserk downward. "I wanted to see those Rowdyruff Boys that HIM mentioned."

"Jeez, can you take your mind off of boys for like five seconds?" Brute said.

"That's easy for you to say, Brute."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Will you two shut up?!" Berserk shouted. "We have a job to do." Her sisters complied. Moments later, Berserk managed to hack the keypad and open the silo. "Got it! Now let's get in." With that, the Powerpunk Girls floated up into the Dynamo's cockpit and took their seats. After sitting down, they were promptly scanned by the robot's computer.

"Identities confirmed. Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup." the computer said.

"Ugh, those were their names?" Brute groaned. "So girly."

"No argument here." Berserk said. "Now watch for the signal." She and her sisters fell silent and kept their eyes on Morbucks Manor. Before long they saw several beams of white light shooting out from the roof.

"That's it!" Brat shouted.

"Let's go!" Berserk replied.

In response, Brat activated the Dynamo's thrusters and took off. Brute then put it in safety mode, curling the Dynamo into a sphere. Then Morbucks Manor exploded in a burst of white light. Using the blinding explosion as cover, the Powerpunk Girls flew the Dynamo off into the night.

*****

Blossom stepped outside the arena and tried to return Princess' call, but to no avail. Fearing the worst (and wanting an excuse to leave), she took off for Morbucks Manor. As she approached her destination, she suddenly saw several beams of light followed by a bright explosion, which forced her to shield her eyes. When she lowered her arm, she saw that whatever (or whoever) exploded had taken a good chunk of Morbucks Manor with it.

"Princess?!" Blossom shouted. She saw that Princess' parents and servants had made it out, but Princess herself wasn't among them. Blossom flew to the epicenter of the explosion to find Princess lying on the ground, injured but alive. "What happened?" Blossom asked as she helped Princess to her feet.

"Some big, mutant Powerpuff Girl attacked me." Princess winced in pain and clutched her side. "Then she just exploded."

Blossom froze, mouth agape. "Bunny?"


	4. Chapter 4

After fleeing from Morbucks Manor, the Dynamo approached the Otto Time Diner. The ground behind the building opened up to reveal the entrance to an underground hangar. The Dynamo uncurled and landed in the hangar as the roof closed behind it.

Berserk, Brat and Brute opened the Dynamo's cockpit, then floated down to the floor. HIM stood there waiting for them, wearing a soda jerk hat and his Kiss the Cook apron. The demon took a moment to observe the giant robot his new allies had stolen. "Magnificent." He turned to the Powerpunk Girls. "Excellent work, you three."

"So what's next?" Brat asked. "Do we finally get to meet the Rowdyruff Boys?"

"Patience." HIM replied. "It'll be a little while before I can resurrect Bunny again."

"What's her deal, anyway?" Brute asked.

"Oh, hers was a tragic story." HIM feigned sorrow. "Suffice to say, she was one of the Powerpuff Girls' greatest failures." HIM smiled a devious smile. "But that failure has left us with a very useful minion. Powerful, easily manipulated, and nearly impossible for the Girls to fight. And after about fifteen minutes, she explodes and takes out everything around her. Then I can just bring her back and start the whole thing over again."

"Yeah, that exploding part could be a problem, though." Berserk said. "Anything you can do to prevent it?"

"Please, I'm not a miracle worker. With the ingredients she's made of I'm surprised she can even hold together at all."

"Don't worry, guys." Brute banged on the Dynamo's side. "With this baby, we don't need that freak of nature."

"Either way, we've got time to plan our next move." HIM pulled out a spatula. "Now who's up for burgers?"

"Ooh, I am!" Brat said. With that, HIM and the Powerpunk Girls went upstairs to the diner.

*****

Princess awoke the next morning, fully recovered thanks to her Chemical X powers. She glanced around at her unfamiliar surroundings, then remembered that she, her parents and the Rowdyruff Boys had checked into this hotel last night. One would expect her to be a bit upset about her mansion being destroyed, but considering she lived in Townsville, she'd long since gotten used to it. This was, what, the fourteenth time it had happened? Her father had sometimes considered moving somewhere more quiet like Peach Creek or Aron City, but Princess would always throw a tantrum to get him to stay. She had business here, after all. Besides, Daddy had the best home insurance money could buy. Morbucks Manor would be rebuilt in a matter of days as always.

Once Princess finished her morning routine (which had been an excruciating ordeal without her servants' help), she heard a knock on her door. "Hey, Princess, you up yet?" Brick shouted from outside.

"Yeah, just a sec." Princess floated to her door and opened it. Brick, Boomer and Butch hovered there in front of her.

"We're gonna go meet the Girls." Brick said. "We have to figure out what HIM's up to."

"Got it." Princess replied. "But this time, try to keep the PDAs to a minimum." The Rowdyruff Boys grumbled at her in response, though she did have a point. Due to the dramatic decrease in crime these past couple months, Team Powerpuff had little to discuss at their team meetings. Consequently, most of them basically devolved into triple dates, which of course left Princess as the awkward seventh wheel.

"Yeah, well, this time we actually have something to discuss." Brick said. He then led Princess and his brothers outside. Then the group flew to the Utonium house.

*****

Professor Utonium heard the doorbell ring, then got up to answer the door. He opened it to find Princess and the Rowdyruff Boys waiting outside. "Hello, Princess…" His cheery disposition faded as he turned to Brick, Boomer and Butch. "Boys…"

"Morning, Professor." Princess replied. The Rowdyruff Boys didn't say anything, trying their best to avoid eye contact with the Professor. As much as they loved the Powerpuff Girls, dealing with their overprotective father was beyond mortifying.

"The Girls are in the living room." the Professor said. With that, Princess and the Boys entered, greeted the Powerpuff Girls and took their seats. The Professor approached his lab-room door and was about to open it when Princess stopped him.

"Actually, you'd better sit in on this, too. We might have some questions about the Dynamo."

"Good idea." he replied. While he wasn't looking, the rest of the team scowled at Princess. She simply smirked at them in response.

Professor Utonium took his seat, then a long, drawn-out silence loomed over the group. Brick was the first one brave enough to break it. "So, first order of business, who or what is Bunny?"

Blossom let out a heavy sigh, her sisters' expressions echoing her sentiments. "Well, a long time ago we were getting overwhelmed with saving the day all the time. We figured the three of us weren't enough, so we…"

"Wait, if you needed more Powerpuff Girls, I could've…" Princess began, but stopped in response to the collective glare she received from the Boys. "Alright, alright. Keep going."

"Anyway…" Blossom continued. "We created Bunny to help us out. But we didn't know what we were doing and used bad ingredients. She turned out deformed and unstable, then she…" Blossom choked up before she could finish. Buttercup looked away, trying to hide her face. Bubbles' eyes started welling up, and without thinking, she flew straight at Boomer, embraced him and cried on his shoulder. Boomer froze until the Professor looked at him as if to say "Okay, but just this once.". Boomer then stroked Bubbles' back trying to calm her down. The rest of the team stayed silent.

"So now HIM has the perfect weapon." Blossom said after regaining her composure. "A soldier, a bomb, and a painful reminder all in one convenient package."

"Not to mention a nice distraction for stealing the Dynamo." Butch added. Buttercup rolled her eyes at him.

"Who could've done that?" Brick asked, turning to the Professor.

"I don't know." The Professor answered. "Whoever did it was smart enough to disable its GPS tracker. Princess, those precautions your men installed… Are you sure they worked?"

"Of course they did!" she replied. "I made absolutely sure that we were the only ones who could pilot it."

"Assuming that's true…" Blossom began. Princess scowled at her. "That means three or more pilots with Chemical X powers that could pass for us. Is there anyone who fits the bill?"

The whole team fell silent trying to figure it out. After several minutes, no one could come up with an answer. Suddenly, the Mayor called, but for some reason only Princess' and the Rowdyruff Boys' phones went off. Brick was the first to answer. "What is it, Mayor?"

"Um, I'm not sure how to say this, but…" the Mayor paused. "The Powerpuff Girls just robbed First National Bank."

*****

Brute exited the bank vault carrying three duffel bags full of cash. She met her sisters as Brat finished tying up the bank tellers and Berserk "accidentally" tripped the silent alarm. The three Powerpunk Girls gathered in the middle of the bank as Brute handed them each their cut of the spoils.

Brute opened up her bag. "Ah, fresh stolen cash." She took out a wad of bills and rubbed it against her face, smiling all the while.

"Man, we haven't done this in forever." Brat took a stack of cash out of her bag and flipped through it.

"You can thank the Powerpuff Girls for that." Berserk said. "They should be here any minute." The Powerpunk Girls' leader flew up and crashed through the ceiling. Her sisters grabbed the cash and followed, then all three of them stood on the roof awaiting their real targets. Eventually, all seven members of Team Powerpuff appeared on the horizon. Finally, the Powerpunks would get their revenge.

Once Team Powerpuff arrived at the bank, all seven of them halted mid-flight. To their surprise, they saw three girls who looked almost exactly like Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup standing on the roof. As Princess and the Rowdyruff Boys stared at them in confusion, the Powerpuff Girls suddenly recalled the interdimensional adventure they took eight years ago.

"Imposters, huh?" Princess asked. "Who are they?"

"I remember." Buttercup turned to face her counterpart. "You're those evil Powerpuff Girls from that other dimension, aren't you?"

"We're the Power _punk_ Girls, moron!" Brute replied. "Get it right."

"And you must be the Rowdyruff Boys." Brat said, scoping out the Boys. "You're just as cute as the guys back home." She shifted focus to Boomer and shot him a flirty smile. "Especially you."

Bubbles flew next to Boomer and latched on to his arm. "He's taken!" she shouted. Brat and Bubbles stared daggers into each other. Boomer simply floated there, dumbfounded but also sort of enjoying the attention.

"So what brings you to Townsville?" Blossom asked sarcastically.

"Let's just say things haven't been easy for us since you took down the Oppressor and put that goody two-shoes monkey in charge." Berserk replied. "HIM came to us and offered us a chance for revenge, so here we are."

"So he is behind this!" Brick said. "Well, we still outnumber you more than two to one."

"Don't worry, we thought of that." Berserk raised her hand and shot a pink laser into the air. Off in the distance, the ground split open, causing a sizable earthquake. "HIM just unleashed that big purple freak of yours. You might want to go do something about it."

Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup froze up with dread. Brick saw their reactions and knew they didn't want to fight Bunny, much less watch her explode again. He decided to spare them the heartache. "Boomer, Butch, we're going after Bunny." With that, the Rowdyruff Boys flew off, leaving Princess and the Powerpuff Girls to handle the Powerpunks.

"Oh, and we have one other advantage, too." Berserk and her sisters grabbed their bags of cash and leapt off the back of the building. Seconds later, the Powerpuff Dynamo emerged.

"Well, looks like we found the thieves." Princess remarked.

*****

Bunny emerged from the ground near Townsville Jail. She remembered that this was the place where she freed all those innocent people and detained their assailants. According to her new friend HIM, those nasty police were at it again. They'd imprisoned a few of his colleagues, Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, Sedusa and the Gangreen Gang. Bunny had been tasked with setting them free.

HIM appeared at Bunny's side. "You remember what to do, right?"

Bunny nodded in response. "Bunny do good!"

"Yes, Bunny do good indeed." At HIM's command, Bunny advanced on the prison wall, but before she could smash it, she heard three streaks of light coming in. She turned to face them hoping to see her sisters, but instead, three boys came to face her instead.

HIM had told Bunny about these guys. They were the Rowdyruff Boys, whose sole purpose was to destroy Bunny's beloved sisters, the Powerpuff Girls. HIM had shown her all the horrible things those boys did to the Girls. Bullying them, teasing them, beating them to within an inch of their lives, and numerous other evil deeds. Now they were going to pay for it! "Row-Ruff Boys bad!" Bunny shouted.

"What?" Brick replied. He and his brothers then caught sight of HIM and turned their attention to the demon. "You!"

"You kids play nice, now." HIM conjured a vortex and disappeared into it. Bunny screamed at the Boys and began her attack. She started by flying at Brick and punching him in the face. Boomer and Butch flew in on either side of Bunny. They grabbed her arms before she could land another blow on Brick, but she was too strong for them to hold her for long. She swung her arms in front of her and bashed Boomer and Butch's heads together. The two boys fell to the ground stunned. Then Bunny resumed her attack on Brick. The red Rowdyruff readied his eye beams and had a clear shot at Bunny, but for some reason, he hesitated and didn't fire. That gave Bunny the opportunity she needed to slam Brick into the ground next to his brothers.

_Remember the mission._ HIM's voice echoed in Bunny's mind. In response, Bunny left the Rowdyruff Boys lying on the ground and turned to the prison wall. This gave the Boys a chance to recover.

"Ugh, she's tougher than I expected." Butch said.

"That's not gonna matter once she explodes." Brick reminded him.

"What do we do about that?" Boomer asked.

Brick paused. If they destroyed Bunny, HIM would just bring her back again and start this whole thing over. And if they did nothing, she'd explode, which left them with the same problem. Brick knew the Girls wouldn't like it, but he could think of only one way to stop her. "Guys, form Crushing Cold Canine." he ordered with an uncharacteristic lack of enthusiasm.

At Brick's command, the Rowdyruff Boys flew up and fused into their icy wolf form. The Canine advanced on Bunny to find that the mutant Powerpuff Girl had smashed a hole in the wall. Convicts were pouring out into the street, but the Canine remained focused on Bunny.

"Doggy!" Bunny smiled and stared at the frozen wolf. The Canine hesitated, then blasted Bunny with its ice breath. Bunny was frozen solid with a look of surprise and confusion on her face. Then the Canine separated into the Rowdyruff Boys.

"I'm sorry." Brick whispered to the frozen Bunny. Boomer and Butch stared at her in silence.

"Well, look what we have here!" The Rowdyruff Boys turned around to face Sedusa. Behind her were Mojo, Fuzzy and the Gangreen Gang.

*****

The Dynamo raised its arm and smacked Princess and the Powerpuff Girls out of the sky. It then blasted its eye beams at the base of a nearby building, causing rubble to fall on the four girls. But before it could crush them, Princess grabbed the largest chunk with her tractor beam. Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup scattered while Princess threw the rubble back at the Dynamo. Unfortunately, the robot simply shrugged it off. The Dynamo then proceeded to move into the city towards City Hall.

"We have to draw its fire." Blossom said to her teammates once they regrouped. "Come on." She led the other heroines to attack the Dynamo. They began firing their lasers at the robot to get the Powerpunk Girls' attention. And apparently it worked. The Dynamo retaliated by opening the missile ports on its body and launching missiles in all directions, decimating the surrounding buildings. The four heroes dodged the missiles and shot them out of the sky with their lasers, though a couple of them managed to hit Bubbles and Buttercup. Blossom and Princess continued the attack on the Dynamo, only to be blasted away by its eye beams. Once again, the four of them found themselves lying on the ground while the Dynamo continued advancing on its target.

"What's your plan?" Princess asked Blossom as the team recovered and flew back up. "We're getting creamed."

"Maybe you should've thought of that before you rebuilt that thing." Buttercup said. Princess rolled her eyes.

"We have to stall the Dynamo until the Boys get back." Blossom said. "Then we'll use the Glorious Shining Dragon to take it out for good."

"Um, that might take a while." Bubbles pointed in the direction of Townsville Jail. The others turned to see the Rowdyruff Boys running damage control on the big gaping hole in the wall. Numerous prisoners had escaped and the Boys were fighting them and rounding them up. Meanwhile, the Dynamo was closing in on City Hall. The robot began opening more of its missile ports.

"Alright, I didn't wanna do this, but we have no choice." Princess pulled a small remote with a single red button on it out of her pocket. "Time to use my last precaution."

Blossom saw the remote and figured out what Princess was about to do. Her eyes widened and she gasped in horror. "No, Princess, don't…!"

"Say goodbye, Powerpunk Girls!" Princess pressed the button.

*****

"We're almost at City Hall." Brat said.

"Perfect." Berserk replied. "Brute, ready the eye beams."

"Aye-aye, captain." Brute took aim at City Hall and began charging the laser. Brat then moved the Dynamo right next to the building. The Dynamo looked down and had the dome of the building in its sights. Berserk raised her hand and prepared to give the order.

Suddenly, the Dynamo's systems went haywire. At the same time, metal cables shot up from the floor and bound the Powerpunk Girls to their seats.

"What the…?!" Brute shouted. Then the cables electrocuted her and her sisters and began draining their Chemical X. The Powerpunk Girls screamed in pain. At the same time, their Chemical X was being transferred to a vat below the Dynamo's cockpit. Once the vat was full, a spark ignited the Chemical X and started a chain reaction.

"We've been had." Berserk said, accepting the inevitable. Then the Dynamo's head exploded.

*****

Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup stared at the freshly decapitated Dynamo, gaping in horror. Princess pocketed the remote, then crossed her arms as a satisfied smirk crept onto her face.

"And that's that!" Princess exclaimed. "I'll have my men repair it later. Let's go help…" Princess stopped mid-sentence when the Dynamo's body toppled over onto City Hall. "Oops."

Blossom's eyes widened with worry. When she calmed down, she issued a command. "Bubbles, Buttercup, go check the wreckage. Princess, come with me." Bubbles and Buttercup flew down to the remains of the building while Princess followed Blossom over to Townsville Jail.

*****

It had taken a while, but the Rowdyruff Boys managed to corral the prisoners back into jail. While normally formidable opponents, Mojo and Fuzzy didn't have their weapons, and most of the other convicts were ordinary, non-superpowered humans. The only one who put up a fight was Sedusa, but she surrendered after Brick threatened to set her hair on fire. Consequently, the prisoners all obeyed and went back inside. The warden then sent out some guards to monitor the hole in the wall.

With their task complete, Brick, Boomer and Butch got ready to go help the girls when they saw the Dynamo's head explode. "Nooo!" Butch yelled, then he fell to his knees in despair. Brick and Boomer moaned, echoing Butch's frustration. Soon after, Blossom and Princess rejoined the Boys.

The first thing Blossom did was float up to the ice block that contained Bunny. Blossom placed her hand on the ice and hung her head, letting out a heavy sigh. Brick floated up next to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"It was the only way I could think of to stop her." Brick said. "I'm sorry I couldn't…"

"It's alright." Blossom replied, then she and Brick embraced each other. Once they pulled apart, Blossom turned her attention to Princess, her demeanor quickly shifting to anger.

"What were you thinking?!" Blossom shouted to Princess. She and the Rowdyruff Boys recoiled at the sudden outburst.

"What'd I do?" Princess replied.

Blossom gestured to the wake of destruction caused by the Dynamo. "You see this?! This is why the Mayor banned the Dynamo! You shouldn't have restored it!"

"Well, if you'd told me there were evil Powerpuff Girls from another dimension…"

"That's another thing! We don't kill people, and that includes our enemies."

"Please, it was either them or us."

"No it wasn't! Superheroes always find another way. We don't…" Blossom suddenly stopped when she heard her sisters landing next to her.

"What took you?" Butch asked.

"We…" Buttercup paused. "Had to take the Mayor and Ms. Bellum to the hospital."

Upon hearing those words, Blossom's blood boiled. She managed to stifle a scream, instead shooting Princess a calm but serious look. "If we can't trust you not to recklessly endanger the city, then we can't trust you to be a Powerpuff Girl. You're off the team, Princess."

Princess froze up, seething with pure rage. She then turned to Brick to gauge his response. The blank expression on his face indicated to her that he agreed with Blossom's decision. There was no denying it. Princess had lost everything she'd been working for. She scowled and clenched her fists, wanting nothing more right now than to beat Blossom and Brick senseless, but she stopped, realizing she was outnumbered six to one. Instead she turned away.

"Fine, but don't think you've seen the last of me." Princess turned back and pointed to the Rowdyruff Boys. "Oh, and you three aren't welcome anymore. Pack your things and get out of the hotel!" With that, she flew away.

*****

HIM, sitting in his living room in his home dimension, waved his claw and dismissed his viewing screen. He smirked devilishly upon seeing Princess' falling out with Team Powerpuff. He then twirled his claw three times. Moments later, the Powerpunk Girls reappeared in a puff of red fog.

"Ow!" Brat rubbed her head. "Exploding to death hurts."

"Sorry about that." HIM said. "But look on the bright side. Phase Two of the plan is complete."

"What do you mean?" Berserk said. "We lost the Dynamo, we lost Bunny, we didn't free the other villains, and the Powerpuff Girls are still alive."

"We even lost all the cash we stole." Brute added.

"And my new boyfriend got away." Brat complained. Her sisters rolled their eyes in response.

"None of that matters." HIM replied. "My only real goal was to get them to kick Princess off the team. Now she'll have no choice but to join us."

"Really?" Berserk asked. "You put us through all that just for that annoying rich girl? Even if she does join us, we're still outnumbered."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." HIM turned his attention to a dark portal that suddenly appeared behind him. "Wouldn't you agree, Mr. Hardly?"

Out of the abyssal vortex emerged an enormous green monster, sporting six tentacles on his chest and a long blonde ponytail. "Please, Mr. Hardly was my father. Call me Dick."


	5. Chapter 5

Buttercup and Butch carried the frozen Bunny to the Professor's lab. Blossom opened the door to the freezer room and waved the green heroes in. The Professor and the rest of the team watched in silence as Bunny was placed in the freezer. Blossom then closed the door and turned to her father. "Can you fix her, Professor?"

It took a moment for him to respond. "Maybe… It'd help if I knew what she was made of."

Blossom closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, trying to remember. "We used artificial sweetener… A computer… Crayons… I think there was a lizard…" Blossom hung her head. "I'm sorry. It was so long ago."

"All I remember was a knuckle sandwich." Buttercup said. Bubbles merely shook her head in shame.

"I see…" the Professor replied. "I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises."

"Please try, Professor." Bubbles said.

"We are gonna need someone to replace Princess." Brick added.

"Huh?" the Professor replied.

"Oh, right." Blossom said. "I forgot to tell you. We had to kick her off the team for endangering the city."

"And she kicked us out of her mansion." Butch grumbled. Blossom and Buttercup rolled their eyes at him.

While Brick shared their sentiments, he also realized that Butch had a point. The Rowdyruff Boys were homeless yet again. Brick briefly considered what to do about it and quickly realized their only option. Reluctantly, he turned to the Professor. "So, in light of that development, is there any chance we could… um…"

The Professor immediately knew where Brick was going. The look on his face indicated a pretty clear no.

"Y'know, this might not have happened if you didn't help Princess restore the Dynamo." Buttercup said.

"Buttercup…" the Professor began.

"I'm just sayin', the Mayor did outlaw that thing." Buttercup stroked her chin. "I wonder what he and Ms. Bellum might say about it."

"Once they get out of the hospital, that is." Bubbles added coyly.

The Professor sighed. He couldn't believe it. Not only were his own daughters blackmailing him, but it was actually working. Realizing he had little recourse, he turned back to the Rowdyruff Boys. "Alright, you can stay here. But we need to lay some ground rules."

*****

The Powerpunk Girls took a look at the monster standing before them. He certainly wasn't human, but something about him seemed different than your typical Monster Isle denizen. HIM stood up from his chair and gestured to the new villain.

"Powerpunk Girls, meet Dick Hardly." HIM gestured back to the three girls. "Dick, meet Berserk, Brat and Brute."

"Charmed." Dick said, extending his hand.

"Uh, yeah…" Berserk floated up and shook his hand. She then turned to HIM. "Who is this guy?"

"This 'guy' is our best chance to destroy the Powerpuff Girls." HIM turned to Dick. "And we can pay you handsomely."

Dick's eyes widened. Berserk swore she saw dollar signs in them. "I'm in. What's the plan?"

"Patience. We still have yet to recruit our last team member. But she'll come to us soon enough." HIM waved his claw and conjured a doorway leading to the Otto Time Diner. "Now let's get some lunch."

"Uh, little help here?" Dick pointed to the door, which was far too small for his monstrous form to fit through.

"Oh, right. Hold still." HIM pointed his claw at Dick and flicked it twice. All of a sudden, Dick reverted to his human form. "There. Now you can change at will."

"Alright!" Dick approached HIM and put his arm around the demon's shoulders. "Now, about that handsome pay…" he began as they went through the doorway.

Brat and Brute followed the two villains, but stopped when they noticed Berserk floating behind them. The pink Powerpunk Girl stared at HIM and Dick with a skeptical look on her face.

"Something on your mind?" Brute asked.

Berserk snapped out of it. "No, nothing." With that, the Powerpunk Girls followed HIM and Dick to the diner.

*****

"Move your foot!" Butch demanded.

"You move your foot!" Boomer shot back before kicking Butch's leg. Butch grumbled at him in response.

"Shut up!" Brick shouted to his brothers. He then grabbed the covers and pulled them over to his side of the couch-bed. This of course caused Butch to lose his portion of the blanket, so he grabbed it back. The boys engaged in a tug-of-war until they eventually divided the covers evenly.

"Ugh, I can't stand this." Brick complained. Due to the Utoniums' alleged lack of a guest room, the Rowdyruff Boys were all forced to share the couch-bed. This arrangement had been going on for two nights and the Boys were already sick of it. Something told Brick that the Professor enjoyed putting them through this.

"Y'know, we each had our own beds back at Princess' place." Butch reminded his brothers.

"Did you have to kick her off the team?" Boomer asked Brick.

"You heard Blossom." Brick said. "Princess endangered the city and put the Mayor and Ms. Bellum in the hospital."

"Right, 'cause the Girls never did that before." Butch replied. "Do you just go along with everything Blossom says? You're so whipped."

Brick glared at Butch. "Maybe I should tell Buttercup how badly you miss Princess."

Butch had no response. He merely muttered something under his breath, then turned away from his brothers.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Brick said. "Now both of you be quiet. We have school tomorrow."

"Ugh, don't remind me." Boomer said.

Before nodding off, Brick considered that Butch might have had a point. Sure, Princess did cause a lot of damage yesterday, but it was no more than what the Girls typically caused during monster attacks or supervillain battles. And it's not like anyone died save for the Powerpunk Girls, and knowing HIM, he probably just resurrected them afterwards. Blossom letting Princess go seemed like a pretty hasty decision in hindsight. Brick would have to find time to talk to Blossom about it.

*****

After sixth period history class ended, Blossom and Brick exited the classroom and floated down the hallway. Today, the class gave oral reports on the historical figure of their choosing. Blossom, of course, ended up choosing Susan B. Anthony, who had been an inspiration to her ever since that fight with Femme Fatale all those years ago. Brick's choice was a bit unusual, though. "Sun Tzu, huh? Why him?" Blossom asked him.

"I read _The Art of War_ when I was a kid. It helped me get to where I am today."

"Interesting." Blossom replied. "I'll have to read it myself sometime."

"You can borrow my copy if you want."

"Thanks." Blossom and Brick arrived at the exit. Their siblings were already there waiting for them. Out of sheer force of habit, Boomer kissed Bubbles goodbye and floated in the direction of Morbucks Manor. Bubbles quickly grabbed his hand and stopped him mid-air.

"Where are you going?" Bubbles smiled at him. "You live with me now, remember?"

"Oh, how could I forget?" Boomer embraced Bubbles, then the blue couple closed their eyes and nuzzled each other's cheeks. The rest of the team averted their gazes, having trained themselves to ignore Bubbles and Boomer when they got like that.

"That reminds me. Has anyone seen Princess lately?" Blossom asked the group.

"No, not since we cut her loose." Buttercup replied.

"Jeez, it's already Wednesday." Butch said. "I mean, I get wanting to skip school, but come on."

Brick paused. He considered the conversation he and his brothers had the other night. For some reason he'd been hesitant to talk to Blossom about it, but now was as good a time as any to bring it up. He turned to his girlfriend. "Hey, do you think we were too quick to get rid of her?"

Blossom shot him a quizzical look. "What?"

"It's just… it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision. And it was really more the Powerpunk Girls' fault if you think about…"

"It wasn't just the Dynamo thing." Blossom interjected. "Like I said, I really don't think she understands what it means to be a hero. And it's not like that was the first time she messed up and got people hurt. Remember what she did to Bossman?"

"Well, he was kind of asking for it." Buttercup pointed out.

"You sure it's not just too many years of bad blood?" Brick asked.

"Or jealousy?" Butch added. Blossom, Brick and Buttercup all glared at him. Bubbles and Boomer would have too if they weren't lost in each other's eyes as usual.

"I don't know." Blossom said, trying her best not to knee Butch in the stomach. "But what's done is done. Princess will just have to come to terms with it."

Brick paused again. "You think she might attack us?"

*****

Princess stood atop Townsville Natural History Museum. In her hand, she held the World's Largest Cubic Zirconia, which had been touring the country and arrived in Townsville just in time for Princess to steal it. She smiled a devious smile, knowing that any second, her former teammates would show up to stop her. Before long, she saw the six heroes flying in from over the horizon.

As the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys came into view, Princess dropped the Zirconia and began charging her yellow laser. Wasting no time with pre-combat bantor, she fired and hit Buttercup square in the forehead, taking out the green Powerpuff. The rest of Team Powerpuff gasped, then Butch rushed Princess, seething in anger. Princess avoided his blows with relative ease, but Butch was no slouch either. After a few seconds of neither of them landing a hit, Princess remembered learning Butch's weakness from Buttercup. She pulled back and shot several eye beams at Butch, who instinctively put up his forcefield. Then Princess rushed Butch and shattered the shield, then took him out with a flurry of punches.

Princess sneered at the remaining superheroes, then picked up the Zirconia and took flight. The red and blue heroes gave chase. Princess started weaving through the skyscrapers, forcing Team Powerpuff to split up. After a few twists and turns, she cornered Boomer alone in an alleyway. Princess activated her tractor beam and tightened it on Boomer's neck, choking him out.

"You never learn, do you?" Princess then heard Bubbles flying in from behind. The blue Powerpuff Girl blasted her eye beams at Princess, but the spoiled brat dodged masterfully. Princess flew straight at Bubbles and punched her in the stomach, then the face. Then she picked Bubbles up and slammed her into the side of a building, knocking her out.

With only the red ones left to deal with, Princess ascended to the top of Townsville's tallest building, hoping to get their attention. Brick was first to close in on her. He threw a punch and missed. Princess took the Zirconia and smashed it over Brick's head, stunning him and shattering the gemstone.

Blossom arrived just in time to see Princess take out Brick. The pink Powerpuff scowled at Princess and blasted her with her ice breath. Princess grabbed Brick and threw him in the way. Blossom recoiled in shock upon accidentally freezing her boyfriend. Princess took the opportunity to tackle Blossom. The two redheaded girls broke through a window and into an empty office.

After wrestling for a minute, Princess managed to pin Blossom down. It was here that Princess unleashed all her pent-up rage. She screamed and punched Blossom in the face as hard as she could. Then she pulled back and delivered another blow. Then another. Then another. Then another. Eventually it was too much for Blossom to take. Bruised and beaten, the pink Powerpuff Girl fainted.

Princess stood up and scowled at Blossom's battered, unconscious body, panting heavily. After catching her breath, Princess closed her eyes. "End simulation." In response, everything around Princess disappeared, replaced by the familiar white walls of her VR training room. As she stepped out, Jeeves handed her a towel.

"Will that be all, Princess?"

"Yeah." Princess wiped the sweat off her face and tossed the towel back to her butler. She then floated down the hall to her study and sat down at her desk. As viscerally satisfying as it was, beating the snot out of powered-down virtual effigies of the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys wasn't helping her accomplish her goal. For the first time in months, she began formulating a plan. Hopefully this time, she'd have her revenge.

*****

The Powerpunk Girls retreated to the guest room HIM had set up for them. The demon had just left for a mission, giving the Girls some time to kill. Brat and Brute each lay down on their beds while Berserk took a seat at the desk and booted up her computer.

"Hmm…" Berserk let out after about half an hour of silence.

"Something on your mind?" Brute asked.

"I've been doing some research on the villains here, and I gotta say, I'm not impressed. Least of all by HIM."

"What do you mean?" Brat asked.

"This guy has immense, god-like powers and yet he's never been able to beat three little girls. You know why?" Berserk's sisters merely shrugged. "It's because he's an idiot. Same goes for all these villains. None of them can formulate a decent plan to save their lives. Think about it. We just threw away Bunny, the Dynamo, and all the cash we stole just for a chance at recruiting this Princess chick, and that's assuming she even agrees to join us. And considering her track record, I doubt she's even worth having on the team." Berserk gestured to her computer monitor, where she'd pulled up Princess' criminal record, as well as the records of Townsville's other villains. "Take a look."

"Wow, these guys are terrible." Brute said after taking a minute to read.

"You said it." Berserk agreed. "We shouldn't put too much faith into HIM's plan. If need be, we may have to take care of things ourselves."

Brat took a look at Dick Hardly's record. Her eyes widened in horror. "Whoa! This guy's got issues!"

"Yeah…" Berserk said. "We should probably watch out for him, too."

*****

Princess furiously tapped her pencil on a blank sheet of paper. It had been nearly an hour and she still hadn't come up with anything. Of all times to blank on evil plans, why did it have to be now? She threw her head back and stared at the ceiling, groaning in frustration.

Suddenly, Princess felt HIM's presence. She sat up in her chair and furrowed her brow. The Ultimate Evil then manifested behind her.

"I heard about your little falling out with the others." HIM placed his claws on her shoulders. "Such a shame. Looks like you weren't cut out to be a hero after all."

"Get out!" Princess seethed. HIM didn't reply. The evil one lifted his claws and took a look at her desk.

"Seems you've run out of ideas. Writer's block?"

" _Get out!_ " Princess turned around and shot at HIM with her eye beams. The infernal one narrowly dodged it. He turned around and looked at the two scorch marks on the wall. Then he turned back to see Princess scowling and baring her teeth at him.

"Just so you know, my offer is still on the table." HIM took out a brochure for the Otto Time Diner and placed it on the desk. "When you're ready, you know where to find me." With that, the evil one disappeared in a puff of red smoke.

Princess looked at the brochure, then back to her blank paper. After some cooling off, she briefly considered joining HIM, seeing as how she wasn't coming up with anything. But then she remembered that HIM could never beat the Powerpuff Girls before. Whatever he had planned was doomed to fail just like everything else he'd tried.

But who was she to talk? Princess and the Powerpuff Girls had been doing this same song and dance for nearly a decade. And every time, Princess ended up beaten and humiliated. Even if she did somehow succeed, destroying them wasn't even her real goal anyway. What she wanted, more than anything else, was to be a Powerpuff Girl. And she almost had it, too. But just like all those times before, she'd failed. Now here she was again, hopelessly continuing this Sisyphean endeavor.

Princess let out a heavy sigh, then rested her head on the desk. There had to be some way to break this cycle. Some way to change things for the better. But how?

*****

A nurse wheeled Ms. Bellum into the visiting area of the hospital. Due to being caught in the destruction of City Hall, her right leg had been broken in several places. She also had a couple broken ribs and some major bruising, but it was nothing she wouldn't recover from. Today, she at least felt well enough for a visit from Team Powerpuff. Bubbles was the first of the six to speak up.

"Hi, Ms. Bellum. Where's the Mayor?"

"Still resting. He got hit pretty hard, but he'll be okay." Ms. Bellum looked around and noticed someone else missing. "Where's Princess?"

There was a brief silence before Blossom answered. "We don't know. She just disappeared after we kicked her off the team."

"What?" Ms. Bellum replied. "Why'd you do that?"

"Because she restored the Dynamo and caused all that damage." Buttercup said.

"Well, technically, the Powerpunk Girls did that. And even then, it was apparently on HIM's orders." Brick said in Princess' defense. "But what bugs me is that senseless destruction isn't usually HIM's style."

"You're right." Blossom agreed. "He's normally all about trickery and manipulation. Why would he have the Powerpunk Girls steal the Dynamo and attack the city in such a straightforward manner?"

The team and Ms. Bellum fell silent. After a moment, Brick came to a realization. "He baited us!"

"What do you mean?" Boomer asked.

"He knew about the tension between us and Princess, so he staged all this to get us to kick her off the team. That was his plan all along! And we played right into it."

"I think you're right." Ms. Bellum said. "How'd you get so smart?"

"I, uh, had the right motivation." Brick jerked his head towards Blossom.

Ms. Bellum turned to Blossom. "This one's a keeper." She said, pointing at Brick. Blossom's face turned red.

"Anyway…" Butch interjected. "What do we do now? Should we try to get her back on the team? Maybe she can build us another Dynamo." Buttercup smacked him in the back of the head.

"No, we can't." Blossom shook her head. "Even if HIM tricked us, Princess still hasn't changed. I don't know if she ever will."

"In that case." Brick said. "Let's just hope she doesn't join up with HIM."

*****

Princess touched down at the North Pole and knocked on the door to the workshop. As she waited for someone to answer, the biting cold started to get to her. If not for her powers, she'd likely have frozen solid within minutes. Princess truly hated the cold, but if she was going to make the change she wanted, enduring it was a small price to pay.

Eventually, an elf answered the door. "Ah, Miss Morbucks. We've been expecting you."

"Expecting me?" Princess hadn't called ahead or anything. Leaving to come here was a spontaneous decision.

"You know, 'He knows when you are sleeping, he knows when…'" the elf sang.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Princess interrupted. The elf led her inside to the foyer. He then handed her a mug of hot cocoa as she took a seat on the couch.

"The boss will be with you shortly." The elf left the room.

Princess took a sip of her cocoa, then set it on the end table. Her eyes wandered around until she saw the Permanent Naughty Plaque on the wall, with her name engraved in it. She thought back to all those years ago when she landed herself on that plaque. Out of all the evil things she'd done over the years, that was perhaps the worst of them. She definitely had a history here, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Princess considered the implication of that plaque. Did having her name up there mean she was truly incapable of being a hero? If it did, what was the point of even trying? Maybe it was better to just accept her lot in life. No, she was too powerful and too rich to settle for that. Somehow, she would give up her evil ways and truly join the side of good. But for that, she would need to consult an expert, and who better than the big man himself?

Eventually, the man Princess came to see burst through the door. He crossed his arms and looked down at her. "Well, well, well. What brings you here?"

"Santa, I need some help."


	6. Chapter 6

"I'm back." HIM announced to his team as he returned to his lair. The demon carried in several grocery bags and set them down on the table. Dick Hardly walked up to them and peered inside. He pulled out a bag of artificial sweetener, a frozen mackerel and a box of bandages.

"What are these for?" he asked HIM.

"They're ingredients." HIM replied. "Your part in this plan is to mass-produce copies of that hideous thing the Powerpuff Girls made." HIM handed Dick a sheet of paper. "Here's the recipe."

"Gotcha!" Dick pored over the sheet. "And… where do we get Chemical X?" He then turned his attention to the Powerpunk Girls' room, smirking deviously.

"They're off-limits." HIM said. "Besides, the next order of business is to get your old factory back."

"Oh yeah, that's right!" Dick remembered the loan he'd taken out with Mr. Morbucks. Seeing as how he'd involuntarily defaulted on his payments, the Morbucks family had no doubt seized his factory by now. "How'd things go with the rich kid?"

"She's a bit cranky right now, but she'll come around sooner or later. She always does." HIM replied. "In the meantime, we'd better stock up on more ingredients." HIM conjured a dark portal. "I'll be at the hardware store." With that, he stepped through the portal.

Dick took a look at the list, scratching his head. Who in their right mind would make a Powerpuff Girl out of this junk? Then again, as long as he got paid, it didn't really matter. With that, he stepped out to go to the flower shop.

*****

"Help with what?" Santa asked. "Another one of your evil plans? 'Cause you know, that's not exactly my forte."

Princess had expected a reaction like that. "No, it's not that. The thing is…" Princess sighed. "This pattern's been going on for the last eight years, and I'm sick of it! I'm sick of being evil, I'm sick of going around in circles, and I'm sick of the Powerpuff Girls rejecting me all the time! I want to be a hero." Princess hung her head. "But I don't think I know how." She then looked back up at Santa. "I figured you understood right and wrong better than anyone. So, can you help me?"

Santa was taken aback. In all the centuries upon centuries he'd been around, this was the first time anyone came to him begging for another chance. He wasn't quite sure how to deal with it. Normally those on the Permanent Naughty Plaque were truly irredeemable, especially that German kid. But maybe it was time he rethought that policy. He decided to see if Princess deserved redemption, or was even capable of it.

"I'll see what I can do." Santa said. "But if you want my help, you're gonna have to earn it."

"I'll do whatever it takes." Princess replied.

"Excellent." Santa said. He then showed her into his workshop.

*****

Professor Utonium emerged from the lab. He let out a long sigh as he walked into the kitchen. He remembered that Brick had volunteered to make dinner tonight and wanted to see how it was coming along. The red Rowdyruff Boy had just finished kneading pizza dough and divided it into seven circles.

"Oh, hey, Professor." Brick said. "So, what do you want on yours?"

"Just cheese is fine." the Professor replied. "Where'd you learn to cook?"

"I took some classes when I was younger, kind of as a survival technique." Brick gagged, remembering having to choke down Mojo's horrendous seafood dishes every night. "I tried teaching Boomer and Butch, but that went about as well as you'd expect."

"That bad, huh?"

"Oh yeah." Brick began spreading the sauce on the seven personal pizzas. "You sure you don't want anything on it? Blossom said you liked liver and onions."

"Well, yeah…" the Professor stammered. "Just… not on pizza."

"If you say so. These'll be ready in thirty."

"Thank you." the Professor said as he left the kitchen.

Half an hour later, Brick set the table and called everyone else to dinner. The Girls, the Boys and the Professor all took their seats.

"Looks great. Thanks, Brick." Bubbles said, then she turned to the Professor. "So, how's… you know…?"

The Professor paused before answering. "I'm sorry, Girls." he said, unable to look up from his plate. "I have no idea what I'm working with, and if I do anything wrong she could explode again. I don't know what to do."

The rest of the table remained quiet. Blossom was the first to break the silence. "You'll get there Professor. There's no rush."

"Yeah. Now let's eat! I'm starving." Buttercup picked up a slice of her pepperoni, sausage and bacon pizza. Just before she could take a bite, everyone's phones went off. She and Butch grumbled in disappointment as Brick answered first.

"What is it, Mayor?" Brick listened to the Mayor's rambling, then hung up. "It's another monster attack. We'd better go."

"See you later, Professor." Blossom said. With that, she and the rest of the team flew out the window.

The Professor took a bite of his pizza. Whatever misgivings he had about Brick, the Professor had to admit that the boy was a good cook. He thought for a moment about the Rowdyruff Boys. Like most of Townsville, he'd always suspected that the Boys and his daughters would eventually develop feelings for each other and get together, much to his dismay. But then again, they had given up their villainous ways due the Girls' influence, and even saved their lives from the Beat-Alls. And it was nice that they were capable of protecting the Girls out on the battlefield, something the Professor could never do. Not effectively, anyway. Out of all the boys his daughters could have ended up with, maybe the Rowdyruff Boys weren't so bad.

But then the Professor remembered that they were still teenage boys. He made a mental note to rebuild his containment ray, and to pick up some fish and shrimp for dinner tomorrow.

*****

Out of all the weird monsters the Powerpuff Girls had faced over the years, this one took the cake, even giving the Abomination a run for its money. It walked on a mess of reddish-pink tentacles rather than legs, and its two blue arms each split into two forearms at the elbows. Its humanoid torso was covered in bony spines and plates. To top things off, its head had no visible facial features. It was simply a helmet-shaped skull with two large mandibles resembling those of an ant. It had been gnawing on the water tower when Team Powerpuff came to stop it.

"Hmm, our team goes down by one and suddenly an overconfident monster shows up." Brick observed. "Coincidence?" he added sarcastically.

"Can we make this quick? I'm hungry." Butch said.

"It looks pretty strong." Blossom turned to the rest of the team. "We'll have to combine."

"Without Princess?" Brick asked. "I don't think we…"

"Let's just try it!" Blossom interjected. At her command, the team flew at the monster in a V-formation. The monster looked up to see the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys turn into spheres of white light. All six of them merged into one, producing a flash of light. Then… nothing.

The monster looked on with a dumbfounded expression (or as close to one as it could make with no eyes). The combination had failed for some reason. The six superheroes simply floated there and stared at each other, befuddled.

"What the…?" Blossom began, but then the monster hit her with one of its tentacles. Brick swooped in and caught her.

"We'll worry about it later." Brick let go of Blossom. "Everyone attack!" he shouted.

The monster took a swipe at Buttercup and Butch with its upper- and lower-right hands. Buttercup avoided the attack, but Butch was caught. Buttercup then shot the monster's elbow with her laser eyes, severing its two forearms and freeing Butch. The monster bellowed in pain, but then its limbs regenerated almost immediately.

"Oh, great!" Buttercup complained. "It's one of _those_." Facing monsters with super-healing was always a pain. The Girls couldn't defeat them by conventional means, which of course was Buttercup's favorite way to fight.

Now it was up to Blossom to come up with something. Obviously overpowering it with the Glorious Shining Dragon was out. She took a look at the monster and noticed that the head was covered in bone while the rest of its body was relatively exposed. Maybe that meant that the head was more vulnerable than everything else. With that in mind, she formulated a plan. "Buttercup, you're with me! Bubbles, you and the Boys keep its hands and tentacles busy."

"Roger!" Bubbles and Buttercup replied in unison. Bubbles, Brick, Boomer and Butch flew around the monster. It attempted to grab the super-children with its tentacles, but doing so proved to be impossible. Every time it managed to grab one hero, another would simply save them by severing the monster's tentacle.

While the monster was distracted, Blossom and Buttercup flew up behind its head. Blossom froze the monster's skull-helmet with her ice breath. The literal brain freeze slowed the monster down, then Buttercup punched it in the back of the head and shattered its skull-helmet, exposing the monster's vulnerable brain matter.

Rather than risk getting lobotomized (or worse), the monster turned and retreated back to the coastline. It then dove into the water and swam back to Monster Isle. Brick and his brothers were about to go after it when Blossom stopped them. "No need. We'll let it tell the other monsters we're still unbeatable." Blossom paused. "Even without Princess."

"Good idea." Buttercup said. "Now let's go eat!"

As the rest of Team Powerpuff flew home, Blossom floated there lost in thought. The failed combination both confused and worried her. Why couldn't they fuse? And even though they managed to beat this monster, what if a stronger one came along?

"Hey, are you coming?" Brick derailed Blossom's train of thought.

"Um, yeah…" Blossom turned and followed Brick home.

*****

"Quittin' time!" Soveliss shouted to everyone on the assembly line.

"Finally." Princess put down the half-finished toy airplane she'd been working on. Keyleth and Tharivol gave her weird looks from across the table, but Princess paid them no mind. She retired to the small room Santa gave her to stay in and slumped onto the bed.

It had been five days since Princess came to the North Pole. As part of her redemption plan, Santa put her to work making toys with all the elves. It wasn't even Thanksgiving yet, but the Christmas Rush kept starting earlier and earlier each year, and Santa had to keep up. Although it wasn't like a thirteen-year-old rich girl who'd never done an ounce of manual labor in her life would be of much help, superpowers or no.

Princess got up and floated to her desk. She looked at the bonsai tree Santa gave her to take care of, which was also part of the redemption process, apparently. She gave it some water and trimmed a few of its leaves. Then she put it under the UV lamp. Princess was no botanist, but she still did a good job of raising this plant, especially considering she was at the North Pole.

After a while, she got up to go see Santa. The two of them would be meeting to talk every couple days while she was here. This was her first session since starting. She was a bit nervous, but if it's what she had to do to break the cycle, she'd do it. With that, she opened the door to the meeting room, where Santa sat there waiting for her.

"I think I get it." Princess said as she took her seat. "The plant is to teach me how to care for another living thing, and the toy making is restitution for all the bad stuff I've done."

"You're sharp." Santa replied. "Now how 'bout we cut to the chase. Why did you want to be a Powerpuff Girl so badly?"

Princess sighed. "If I'm being honest, it was for the attention. Everyone loved and worshipped those girls, and I wanted some of that love, too. Then they didn't let me join them and I just kinda lost it."

"Not used to being told 'no', huh?" Santa replied.

"Well, _now_ I am. But yeah, I know what you mean. I was your typical spoiled brat. Daddy always gave me everything I wanted." Princess paused. "Mostly just to shut me up." She felt her eyes start to well up, but managed to keep it together.

"Believe me, he won't be winning Father of the Year any time soon."

"Can't say I blame him, though. I was an absolute terror. It's no wonder the Powerpuff Girls rejected me. It's no wonder nobody…" Princess couldn't finish. She buried her face in her hands, then broke down into tears.

"It's okay." Santa passed her a box of tissues. "Just let it all out."

Princess cried for several more minutes. "It's my own fault." she said weakly. "I've done so much evil in my life. Of course they never thought I could be a hero."

"If it makes you feel better, you have done some good." Santa said. "You helped take down the Abomination, didn't you?"

"Please, that was just another one of my schemes. I thought that if the Girls could forgive the Boys and let them join the team, maybe I could piggyback off of that. But I guess they couldn't forgive me."

"Well, did you ever say you were sorry?"

Princess paused. In all her life, she'd never apologized for anything. She'd feigned apologies every now and then, but was never sincere. "No, I never did." she admitted. "I guess that should've been what I started with. Not 'Hey look, I just choked out Bubbles' boyfriend! Now make me a Powerpuff Girl!'"

"Ho, ho, ho." Santa couldn't help but chuckle at Princess' shrill impression of herself. "Y'know, there's more steps than just a sincere apology."

"Right, of course it wouldn't be that simple. So what should…?" Princess was cut off by Santa's alarm clock going off.

"Looks like that's it for today. We'll pick up this conversation in two days." Santa got up and headed out the door. "Care for some dinner? Mrs. Claus is making roast duck."

"Sure." Princess got up and followed him. "I was getting kinda sick of Lembas Bread."

*****

Buttercup and Butch exited the theater in Townsville Mall after seeing the latest Action Hank movie. It seemed like the perfect way to spend Friday evening after an especially dull week of school. Or at least, that's what they thought going in.

"I never thought I'd say this, but Action Hank's getting a little stale." Buttercup said after finishing off the last of her popcorn. She tossed the bag in a nearby trash can.

"C'mon, that was awesome." Butch responded. "Motorcycle chases, fight scenes, explosions, what more do you want?"

"A coherent plot would be nice."

"You went to an Action Hank movie expecting that?"

"Touché." Buttercup surrendered. With that, the two of them floated over to the food court. As they waited in line at Hotdog On A Skewer, Butch noticed two thugs in ski masks carrying handguns heading into the jewelry store.

"Hey, check it out." Butch grabbed onto Buttercup's arm and pointed at the thugs.

"I guess we'd better stop them." Buttercup sped over to the jewelry store. Butch followed her. The green couple stopped just outside the entrance. The clerk was emptying the cash from the register into a bag as one of the thugs pointed his gun at her. The other thug had his gun aimed in the air.

"Everyone on the ground!" the thug yelled. Everyone in the store complied with his demand. "We're gonna…" Buttercup grabbed the thug from behind by his shirt collar and threw him straight into a pillar. As the thug at the register turned to see what happened, Butch flew right up in front of him. The thug pointed his gun at the Rowdyruff Boy's head.

"Get outta my way, punk!" he shouted, cocking his gun.

Butch shot him a condescending look. "Seriously?"

"I'm warning you!"

"Go ahead. Try it."

"Ok, that's it!" The thug fired his gun. The bullet bounced right off of Butch's forehead and lodged itself in the ceiling.

Butch sighed and rolled his eyes, making sure to exaggerate his expression as much as possible. Before the thug could fire another shot, Butch melted the gun with his laser eyes. He then grabbed the thug and chucked him through the window. The thug broke through the glass and hit the same pillar as his cohort.

Moments later, mall security came to arrest the unconscious would-be robbers. Buttercup and Butch quickly gave their account to the guards, but decided to split before the papparazzi could arrive. Tonight was date night, and they agreed that they'd rather not spend it answering the reporters' inane questions about a run-of-the-mill robbery. Instead, the two of them flew to the top of a hotel across the street from the mall, sitting down off the edge of the roof.

"Never a dull moment in Townsville, huh?" Buttercup quipped.

"Please, those guys went down too easy." Butch replied. "No fun at all."

"Hey, if you need a challenge, we could always go to the junkyard." Buttercup slammed her fist into her palm, or whatever her fingerless approximation of that gesture was.

"Nah, not tonight." Butch waved her off. Normally he'd jump at the chance to fight Buttercup, or even try to provoke her into starting a fight herself. But lately he'd been thinking that maybe there was more to life than senseless violence. Since becoming a hero and getting together with Buttercup, a part of him had grown to appreciate these rare quiet moments with just the two of them. For now, he decided to just enjoy it. "I know I don't say it as often as I should, but I love you, Buttercup."

"Pft, you dork." Buttercup scoffed, then turned to him and smiled. "I love you, too."

"Now who's the dork?"

"Don't ruin it." Buttercup embraced Butch, then the couple shared a passionate kiss. Then they turned to look at Townsville Mall. "We never got our hot dogs, did we?"

"Nope." Butch said. "No we didn't."

*****

Since their green siblings had gone to the movies, Bubbles and Boomer decided to make tonight their date night as well. The two of them flew to Townsville Park and sat on a bench. The sun had already gone down, and a cool autumn breeze was blowing gently through the air. And save for the occasional pedestrian, they had the park all to themselves. Tonight was certainly their night.

"I love this place." Bubbles said softly as she looked up to the starlit sky. "Almost as much as I love you." she continued, resting her head on Boomer's shoulder.

"Yeah, me too." Boomer wrapped his arm around Bubbles. "Sorry there's no horse-drawn carriage this time."

"Oh, that doesn't matter." Bubbles closed her eyes. "I'm so happy you're a good guy now. It's what I've wanted for so many years."

"So we could be together, right?" Boomer asked, even though he already knew the answer. "Y'know, you could've turned evil." he joked.

Bubbles opened her eyes and snickered. "No way. I could never pull that off."

Boomer tried to picture it, then realized she was right. The Bubbles he knew was a sweet, gentle, pure-hearted angel. No other version of her made any sense. He thought about Bubbles' Powerpunk counterpart (Brat, was it?) and remembered just how wrong it felt when he saw her. Then he remembered how she tried to flirt with him. Boomer shuddered just thinking about it. "You're right." He turned to her and touched his hand to her cheek. "I love you just the way you are."

"Oh, Boomer…" Bubbles pulled him in for a kiss, which he happily returned.

After about forty-five minutes of making out on the park bench, the blue couple got a bit hungry. They floated over to the ice cream shop a few blocks away from the park. After ordering and getting their sundaes, Bubbles noticed two of her friends sitting at the backmost table.

"Mitch! Robin!" Bubbles called out and waved to them. The two non-superpowered teens waved back and invited Bubbles and Boomer to come sit with them.

"How's it going?" Robin asked.

"Just perfect." Boomer replied as he held Bubbles' hand. "So, are you two…?"

"Yep!" Mitch replied.

"Someone's gotta protect this guy from Evil Tim, right?" Robin quipped, putting her hand on Mitch's shoulder.

"You're never gonna let that go, are you?" Mitch said as he turned to face Robin. Suddenly, Bubbles squealed at the top of her lungs. Mitch, Robin and everyone else in the shop recoiled and covered their ears. Only Boomer didn't flinch, having long since built up a resistance to Bubbles' screams.

"I'm so happy for you!" Bubbles shouted, then dialed it back after getting weird looks from the server.

"Yeah, I gathered." Robin said, her pinky finger in her ear.

"When did this happen?" Boomer asked.

"Few weeks ago." Mitch replied. "Ever since that party at Princess' place."

Bubbles' smile slowly faded. "You guys haven't seen her around, have you?" she asked, somewhat worried.

"No, we haven't." Robin said.

*****

"Checkmate." Brick moved his rook right in front of Blossom's king. Blossom barely even reacted. They had decided to stay home and play chess while the others went on their dates, but Blossom had been out of it for the entire game. "I don't usually beat you this badly." Brick continued. "Something wrong?"

"I've been thinking about that monster fight last week." Blossom replied. "I mean, we beat it, but we also couldn't combine."

"I kind of expected that." Brick said. "Chemical X works in threes. You have to combine three things in order to get something new. No more, no less."

"Makes sense." Blossom agreed. "Sugar, spice and everything nice make the Powerpuff Girls. Snips, snails and puppy dog tails make the Rowdyruff Boys. Mojo, HIM and Fuzzy make the Abomination."

"And a fiery cat, an icy dog and Princess Morbucks make a dragon, I guess." Brick added. "Still not sure how that works."

"Well, it's good that it did. I don't think we could've beaten the Abomination without that technique." Blossom sighed. "Without Princess."

"Right." Brick agreed. "We'd probably still be stuck on that island, too. I mean, if she hadn't been searching for us…"

"You know she only did that so I'd make her a Powerpuff Girl if she rescued us. She said so herself."

"Yeah, but still…"

Blossom fell silent. Having had time to take things into account, she'd begun to second-guess giving Princess the boot. It was a very heat-of-the-moment decision, one that HIM had apparently set up. Even then, Blossom still had misgivings about Princess, as well as a long and bitter history with her. But that had also been true for the Rowdyruff Boys, and look what happened there. Blossom simply couldn't come to a conclusion on it.

"Do you think it was right to get rid of her?" Blossom asked Brick.

"All I know is that if it's what HIM wanted, we'll need to stay alert." Brick replied. "He'll be back soon, and so will those Powerpunk Girls."

"Right, them." Even though Princess blew them to Kingdom Come, reviving beings of Chemical X was child's play for HIM. He could (and probably did) bring back the Powerpunk Girls with a mere flick of his claw, just like he'd done with Bunny, or with…

Blossom suddenly felt an incredible surge of guilt. "Brick, I'm sorry I made you explode all those years ago. If I knew you'd react like that I would've…"

Brick put up his hand and shook his head. "Please, I had it coming." That seemed to calm Blossom down a little. Brick got up from his seat and floated over next to Blossom. "Speaking of that…" He leaned in, smiling at her.

Blossom's eyes darted across the room, making absolutely sure the Professor wasn't there. Once she knew the coast was clear, she leaned in and gave Brick a quick kiss. As they pulled apart, they heard a crash coming from the lab. Maybe it was a coincidence, but the red couple decided not to chance it.

"I'm gonna turn in." Blossom said.

"Yeah, good idea." Brick replied. With that, Blossom sped upstairs to her bedroom. Brick stayed in the living room and plopped down on the couch-bed.

*****

Brat floated into HIM's living room, where HIM, Dick, Berserk and Brute had been waiting for her. She took a seat at the table next to her sisters.

"Where were you?" Brute asked.

"I was doing important research on Boomer." Brat answered smugly. "Gotta know your enemy, right?"

Berserk rolled her eyes, and also made a mental note to do a virus scan on her computer. She'd been in a particularly irritable mood lately. It had been over two weeks since the Dynamo incident, and thus far the team had done nothing but stockpile Bunny ingredients. Apparently they needed Princess in order to make the next move, but she'd disappeared off the face of the Earth. HIM clearly didn't think this plan through.

"So what's with the team meeting?" Dick asked.

"Well, we have to face the fact that Princess probably won't be joining us." HIM finally admitted.

_Oh, big surprise!_ Berserk suppressed the urge to scream at him. _I could've told you that, moron!_

"But Phase Two was still a partial success." HIM continued. "We did manage to get her off of Team Powerpuff. However, that still leaves us outnumbered. My original plan for that was to have Dick here make copies of Bunny to help you, but that won't be possible without access to the factory."

_Get to the point!_ Berserk shouted in her head.

"So we'll be switching to Plan B. We might not have been able to recruit Princess, but I believe we can get those treacherous Rowdyruff Boys back on our side."

"How do we do that?" Brat asked excitedly.

"Well, there are few things more fickle or more exploitable than teenage boys. They're complete slaves to their hormonal urges, making them very easy to seduce and manipulate." HIM pointed his claw at the Powerpunk Girls. "And that's where you three come in."

"Oh, no." Brute mumbled.

"Oh, yes!" Brat shouted, smiling ear to ear.

"Dick, I'll need you to pose as their father and enroll them in Townsville Junior High." HIM continued. "I'll also need you to break Sedusa out of jail. This is her expertise, after all. If you girls need pointers, she can…"

"We're not doing that stupid plan!" Berserk shouted, finally losing her patience.

HIM was taken aback by the sudden outburst. "What?!" he snapped.

"Did you ever wonder why the villains of Townsville can never beat the Powerpuff Girls?" Berserk continued. "It's because they're all morons, you in particular. You're always coming up with these ridiculous, convoluted plans that the Girls can foil in eleven minutes, twenty-two if you're lucky."

"C'mon, Berserk." Brat complained. "I want to…"

"Shut up, Brat! You know very well those boys aren't interested in you." Berserk turned back to HIM. "Let me tell you how those kinds of stories end. The Rowdyruff Boys realize they and the Powerpuff Girls are the only true ones for each other and they all live happily ever after. So how 'bout we skip the pointless drama, okay?"

HIM glared at Berserk. "Well, if you have a better idea…"

"I'm glad you mentioned it." Berserk pulled out several sheets of paper. "Here's my plan." Brat, Brute and Dick pored over the pages. Berserk had thought of just about everything. She'd clearly done her research on Team Powerpuff.

"Wow, this is pretty good." Brute complimented her sister. "Way better than HIM's plan." HIM scowled at her in response.

Dick was still a bit skeptical. "Yeah, it'll work, but what's in it for…?"

"You can loot Morbucks Manor afterwards." Berserk said.

"I'm in!" Dick turned to HIM. "Sorry, but the kid made a better offer."

HIM relented and took a look at the plan himself. "Really? Where's the subtlety? Where's the trickery and corruption? And where's my part in it?"

"Yeah, I couldn't trust you not to screw it up like you always do." Berserk answered. "So, all in favor of my plan?" Berserk, Brute and Dick raised their hands. "All in favor of HIM's?" HIM raised his claw. Brat was about to raise her hand, but put it down after a glare from her sisters.

"Then it's settled." Berserk continued. "We'll prepare for it tonight, then tomorrow, we attack!"


	7. Chapter 7

After choking down the last of her dinner, Princess left the dining hall and floated back to her room. As she tended to her bonsai tree, she reflected on her time at the North Pole. It had been a life-changing experience for her. She'd learned a lot about herself, about right and wrong, and what it meant to be a hero. And that elvish food was highly overrated.

Perhaps the hardest part of this was remembering all the horrible things her younger self had done. She couldn't help but cringe when she thought of that bratty, selfish, insufferable five-year-old she used to be. But thanks to what she'd learned here, she was confident that she didn't have to be that person anymore. When she returned to Townsville, Princess' cycle of evil and self-destruction would finally be broken.

Maybe then people would actually like her. Though she had a hard time admitting it, the loneliness and lack of friends did get to her from time to time, though she had no one to blame but herself. How ironic that getting the public's adoration was the reason she'd wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl in the first place. Now that she understood that love and respect couldn't be bought or forced, she vowed to earn it by doing good for the City of Townsville, just as the real Powerpuff Girls had.

Princess then changed into her nightgown and went to bed. Tomorrow morning would be her next talk with Santa, and with Princess' newfound confidence, she had a good feeling it would be the last.

*****

Dick Hardly, in his monster form, carried his newly constructed Chemical X-tractor into the Dynamo's former hangar. At Berserk's instruction, he placed it in the center of the room. Dick then reverted to his human form and stood next to Brat and Brute.

"Good." Berserk floated up in front of the other villains. "Now let's go over the plan one more time for the more intellectually-challenged members of our team."

"I still think it's a dumb plan." Brat pouted.

"As of now, we've gathered enough ingredients to make three Bunny clones." Berserk gestured to the pile of junk in the corner. "All we need is some Chemical X. We'll use Dick's machine here to extract some from our bodies." Brat and Brute shuddered as Berserk continued. "Don't worry. As long as we get a good night's sleep, we'll recover by tomorrow."

"Ok, then what?" Brute asked.

"We can make the three clones right here, but we need Dick's factory for mass-production. So the next step will be to attack Morbucks Manor and take the deed, the keys and whatever else we need. Since the clones have an extremely short lifespan, we'll have to create them just before moving out."

"And what about Team Powerpuff?" Dick pointed out.

"That's the best part. With the Bunny clones bolstering our ranks, and with Princess missing in action, we'll outnumber them. I've also gone over the blueprints of the mansion and came up with a battle plan." Berserk pulled up a large diagram and mounted it on the wall. "Just follow this strategy when the heroes arrive and our victory is assured."

"You call that a plan?!" HIM complained as he leaned against the wall. "It's so… straightforward. We should be crushing their spirits and shattering their hearts."

"And how's that been working so far?" Berserk asked sarcastically.

The demon had no response. He merely grumbled and looked away from the Powerpunk Girls' leader.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Berserk then pointed to the Chemical X-tractor. "Brat, you're up first."

"Ok, fine." Brat floated over to HIM and touched him on the shoulder. "If it makes you feel better, I liked your idea." HIM simply scoffed at her and waved her off. Brat then floated underneath the dome of the Chemical X-tractor. Dick walked up to the lever and was about to grab it, but Berserk flew over and stopped him.

" _I'll_ work the machine." she said. Dick backed off in response. Berserk then pulled the lever and drained some of Brat's Chemical X, but switched it off after about ten seconds. Berserk then ordered Brute under the Chemical X-tractor and did the same. After that, Berserk got under the machine herself and had Brute operate it in her stead. Weary from having their Chemical X drained, the Powerpunk Girls retired to their bedroom.

Dick approached HIM. "Sorry for bailing on you, but it's just good business. No hard feelings?"

"Oh, shove off!" HIM stormed out of the room.

*****

"Hmm…" Santa pored over his notes as Princess sat waiting. She was extremely confident about this last night, but the way Santa hemmed and hawed at the notes unnerved her. Princess was still genuinely surprised that he'd even agreed to help her in the first place.

"So, what's the verdict?" Princess asked.

"Well, I think you've made a lot of progress. You've definitely got a much better grasp of right and wrong now, and you've done about enough work to make up for switching the lists. There's not much more I can do for you here."

Princess breathed a sigh of relief. "I guess that just leaves the Powerpuff Girls." Earning Santa's forgiveness was one thing, but earning the Girls' forgiveness was another. Princess still wasn't sure how to go about it. Like Santa said, it would probably require more than a simple apology. Especially after years of animosity.

"Good luck with that." Santa said. "I wish I could help, but it's gonna be up to them. Direct intervention on my part isn't allowed."

"Well, hopefully they've cooled off after that thing with the Powerpunk Girls." Princess sighed. "Maybe they realized that HIM orchestrated it, too."

"Figured it out, did you?"

"Wasn't too difficult. HIM tried to recruit me for his plan, then a week later the Powerpunks attacked on his orders and I got kicked off the team. I'd hardly call that a coincidence."

Princess thought about HIM. Due to his nature as an immortal, extradimensional being, the Girls could never truly defeat him. The best they could do was to put a stop to his schemes, and while they'd been able to handle them thus far, someday HIM might get the better of them. If only there was a way to…

Princess suddenly got an idea. "Santa, you've got crazy magical powers. Do you have a way to stop HIM for good?"

Santa paused. "Well, actually…" He took a lump of coal from next to the fireplace. He then touched his finger to his nose. The coal flashed in his hand, then transformed into a star-shaped diamond. "This has special binding properties. Combined with Chemical X powers, it can be used to imprison HIM within it."

"And you never gave this to the Powerpuff Girls because…?"

"They never put it on their Christmas lists."

Princess narrowed her eyes at Santa.

"Look, there are certain rules I have to follow. I'm not even sure I can give this to you, what with, y'know…"

Princess rolled her eyes, but then thought of a loophole. "You made that from a piece of coal, didn't you?"

"Yeah…"

"And seeing as how my name is on the Permanent Naught Plaque, you should be giving me coal, right?"

Santa smirked at Princess' cleverness. "Princess Morbucks, for all your hard work these past couple weeks, I've decided to give you your Christmas present early this year." He quickly wrapped the diamond in a small box and wrote Princess' name on it. "Hope you like it."

Princess unwrapped the present and pulled out the diamond. "Oh, no. Not another lump of coal." she said sarcastically.

Santa tapped his nose again. In response, a portal appeared leading to HIM's dimension. "Go get him."

Princess floated over to the portal. Before going through it, she turned to Santa and smiled. "Thanks for your help." Princess then turned back and entered the portal. Santa trapped his nose yet again, and the portal disappeared.

*****

Berserk took a look at the three freshly-created Bunny clones. As expected, they were hideous and malformed, but powerful and obedient. And of course, highly volatile. "Alright, we don't have much time, so I'm only explaining this once. You three will be helping us attack Morbucks Manor, retrieve the keys to Dick's factory, and most importantly, destroy Team Powerpuff." Berserk then pointed to one of the clones. "Bunny Clone A!"

"Huh?"

"You're with me!" Berserk shifted focus to the other two. "Bunny Clones B and C, you're with Brat and Brute." She then turned to the other members of her team. "Everyone else remember the plan?"

Brat, Brute and Dick nodded in unison.

"Then let's do it!"

*****

Mr. Morbucks sat in his office going over his stock portfolio. He'd been in an unusually pleasant mood lately. While part of him was concerned about his daughter, a larger part of him enjoyed the peace and quiet that came with her not being around. It was nice to finally have time to catch up on some work.

Suddenly, the east wall of his office burst open. Mr. Morbucks looked on in horror as three copies of that mutant Powerpuff Girl that attacked the mansion three weeks ago flew in. They were followed by the Powerpunk Girls and an old client he hadn't seen in years.

"Hey, how's it going?" Dick said to Mr. Morbucks. "Surprised to see me?"

Mr. Morbucks didn't answer. He was too busy trembling in fear.

"I'll take that as a yes." Dick continued. "Sorry 'bout missing my payments, but I was hoping we could renegotiate or something. Me and my friends here have a little proposition for…"

"Oh, shut up!" Berserk interrupted, then turned her attention to Mr. Morbucks. "Where's the key to Dick's factory?!" she demanded. Mr. Morbucks slowly pointed to the enormous vault behind his desk. "Thanks." Berserk jerked her head towards Brute. "Take care of him."

"With pleasure." Brute picked up Mr. Morbucks and threw him out the hole in the wall.

"Hmm…" Berserk inspected the vault. She inhaled deeply, then froze the door with her ice breath. Bunny Clone A then punched the door and shattered it. Inside the vault was an innumerable amount of cash, as well as precious metals, gemstones, art pieces and other valuable objects. Berserk poked around until she came across a small safe. She broke it open to find both the keys and the deed to the factory.

"Alright, now let's…" Berserk turned around to see Dick stuffing his pockets with cash. She narrowed her eyes at him. "Must you do that now?"

"What? You said to take what we need." Dick replied. "Ingredients ain't cheap, you know." He then resumed stealing Mr. Morbucks' money.

"Hey, quit hogging!" Brute flew into the vault and took some cash for herself.

Brat then floated up next to Berserk. "We might as well." she said as she grabbed a sapphire necklace and tried it on.

Berserk sighed, but then relented and swiped a few platinum bars. After all, a bit of financial security couldn't hurt.

*****

Princess floated through HIM's dimension. Since she'd collaborated with him a few times over the years, she more or less knew her way around here. But this time, she wasn't here to join HIM, but to defeat him once and for all. If she could pull this off, maybe it would make up for all the bad blood between her and the Girls. Even if it didn't, it was still the right thing to do. Princess was a hero now, and what could be more heroic than taking down the Evilest of Evil?

As Princess neared HIM's living area, she spotted three boys wandering around aimlessly. She floated closer to them to find that they looked like the Rowdyruff Boys, except they were dressed like they were in a rock band or something. "What are you guys doing here? And what are you wearing?"

The three boys turned to look at Princess. "Um, we could ask you the same question." the green one replied after a brief awkward silence.

"And this is what we always wear." the blue one added.

"Guys, you've been living at my mansion for the past few months." Princess replied. "I know you never dress like that."

"Since when did we live with…?" Something dawned on the red one. "Wait, are you from that other dimension where everything is flip-flopped?"

Princess came to a realization herself. "Yeah, I guess I am. So you guys are…?"

"We're the Rowdyrock Boys." the red one replied. "I'm Blaze."

"Bastion." the blue one said.

"Bulk." the green one said.

"I'm Princess Morbucks. I assume you guys are looking for the Powerpunk Girls."

"You've met them?" Blaze asked.

"Met them?" Princess chuckled. "I blew them to smithereens."

Blaze and Bastion stared blankly at Princess, mouths agape. Bulk, on the other hand, took the news much better. "Alright, mission accomplished!" He turned to Blaze. "Can we go home now?"

"Don't celebrate just yet." Princess said. "Knowing HIM, he probably just brought them back with a twirl of his claw."

"HIM?" Bastion asked.

"The guy who brought the Powerpunk Girls to my dimension. He's an insanely powerful being that calls himself the Ultimate Evil. He's been causing trouble in my city for years, but I'm here to stop him once and for all."

"Then we'll help!" Blaze exclaimed. "Any friend of the Powerpunk Girls is an enemy of ours." Bastion and Bulk nodded in agreement.

Princess smirked. "Alright, follow me."

*****

After receiving a distress call from the Chief of Police, Team Powerpuff flew over to Morbucks Manor. As the mansion came into view, they noticed Mrs. Morbucks and all of the servants fleeing in terror, one of them carrying an injured Mr. Morbucks on his back. Just like last time, Princess wasn't among them.

"Do you think Princess is trying to trick us?" Brick asked.

"No, even she wouldn't attack her own father." Blossom replied. "Looks like she's still missing."

"Ah, we don't need her." Buttercup said.

The six heroes entered the mansion through the hole in the wall. To their surprise, they were greeted by three clones of Bunny, as well as a blonde-haired, bespectacled man they could never forget. As the Girls froze up with confusion and dread, Brick confronted the man.

"I've read about you. You're Dick Hardly, aren't you?" Boomer and Butch snickered when Brick mentioned that name. "Guys, this is serious. Do you have any idea what he's done?"

"And aren't you supposed to be dead?" Buttercup added after regaining her composure.

"Yeah, well, it's nothing a little deal with HIM won't fix." Dick replied. "Now look, I'm an honest businessman who's only trying to make a living. I just came here to work out a few money problems, okay? So how 'bout we just…"

"Berserk, he's doing it again." Brute's voice complained. She and the other Powerpunk Girls emerged from the vault carrying cash and valuable objects. Brute scowled at the heroes and Brat shot the Rowdyruff Boys flirty looks.

"Well, aren't you gonna stop us?" Berserk brandished her stolen goods at Blossom.

The Powerpuff Girls' leader was still in a mild state of shock from seeing Dick and the Bunny clones. Despite everything, Blossom and her teammates were superheroes, and had a duty to face evildoers, despite their fears. With that, she issued a command. "Team Powerpuff, attack!"

*****

HIM portalled back to his home dimension, pouting all the while. None of his mortal allies ever appreciated his genius. All they wanted was to physically destroy the Powerpuff Girls, but what fun was that? It would've been so satisfying to see their beloved Rowdyruff Boyfriends betray them for their Powerpunk counterparts, crushing the Powerpuff Girls' will to go on. That was the kind of emotional devastation HIM reveled in, not simple-minded destruction.

On the bright side, Berserk's plan could only go one of two ways. Either Dick and the Powerpunk Girls would destroy Team Powerpuff, or much more likely, the plan would fail miserably and Berserk would come crawling back to HIM with her tail between her legs. Either way, HIM stood to benefit. The demon decided to go sit down and prepare a beratement speech for Berserk once she got back.

As he entered his "living room", HIM noticed that Princess was sitting in his chair, staring at him with a neutral expression. "Ah, you've finally come to your senses, I see. Where've you been all this time?"

Princess didn't respond. HIM didn't seem to notice and continued rambling.

"I must say, those Powerpunk Girls were such a disappointment. You'd think they'd recognize a good plan, but no, they just want to go do their own thing." HIM turned his attention back to Princess. "But you're not like them, are you? What do you say we team up and teach those ingrates what real villainy looks like?"

Princess floated up from her seat, glared at HIM for a moment, then blasted him with her eye beams. The demon was hit square in the chest and flung back into a floating rock.

"I know you staged that incident with the Dynamo. You needed me for your plans, didn't you?" Princess narrowed her eyes at HIM. "But I'll never join you. In fact, I'm gonna take you down once and for all!"

HIM recovered and scowled at Princess. "You're gonna regret that!"

*****

Berserk and Bunny Clone A lured Blossom to the area just outside Princess' VR training room. Blossom charged Berserk, but the pink Powerpunk dodged masterfully. She quickly grabbed Blossom by the arm and threw her into the training room. Before Blossom could get up, Berserk slammed the door, turned on the VR room, and cranked the intensity up to maximum.

"That should keep you busy." Berserk then heard someone flying in from behind. She turned to see Brick rushing her. Berserk was too slow to react as Brick tackled her and pinned her to the ground. He raised his fist, ready to punch her in the face.

"Brick, don't…" Berserk looked up at Brick, feigning terror. Suddenly, Brick froze up, unable to attack her. Just as he realized his mistake, Berserk sneered at him, then jabbed him in the stomach. She then got up and delivered a few more blows before Bunny Clone A grabbed Brick.

Brick grumbled, cursing himself for his lapse in judgment. Berserk had taken advantage of the fact that she looked and sounded exactly like Blossom. He'd been reminded of his past mistakes and how he never wanted to hurt Blossom ever again. How unfortunate that he was up against the one person in the multiverse who could use it against him so effectively.

As Brick struggled to break free of Bunny Clone A's grip, Berserk floated up to him. "I've especially wanted to sink my teeth into you, Brick."

Brick sneered back at Berserk. "Sorry, but I'm taken."

"Shut up!" Berserk backhand slapped him. "Out of all the worthless, incompetent villains in this city, you were the only one with any potential. You had the power, the brains, the ruthlessness, everything you needed to conquer Townsville. And what did you do? You fell in love with your nemesis and gave it all up. You and your brothers make me sick to my stomach."

"Please. We just got sick of kissing up to Mojo and HIM. You know that demon's just using you, right?"

"For your information, we're acting on our own. HIM actually wanted me to seduce you."

Brick reviled in confusion and disgust.

"My sentiments exactly." Berserk shifted focus to Bunny Clone A. "Crush him."

In response, Bunny Clone A squeezed Brick as hard as she could. Brick gasped in pain, then fell unconscious. Bunny Clone A dropped him on the floor.

Berserk floated over to the VR console and switched it off. She floated in to see Blossom lying on the floor in a crumpled, battered heap. Berserk dragged Blossom out, then had Bunny Clone A carry both heroes to the foyer.

*****

Princess grabbed a floating rock with her tractor beam and threw it at HIM. Just before getting hit, HIM vanished. He then reappeared next to Princess and took a swipe at her with his claw, knocking her away. She recovered mid-air and shot a yellow laser at HIM, but the demon opened his claw and countered with his own laser blast. HIM effortlessly overpowered Princess and knocked her back into another rock.

HIM floated up next to Princess and pinned her to the rock with his claw. "Stupid girl. Trying to defeat the Ultimate Evil is one thing, but you actually thought you could do it alone?"

"Who said she was alone?!" shouted a voice that sounded like Brick's. HIM looked to the left, expecting to see his treacherous former sons.

"What are you traitors doing here?!"

"You've got us confused with someone else. We're the Rowdyrock Boys!" Blaze replied. "And we're here to bring you to justice." He, Bastion and Bulk combined their lasers into one and shot HIM in the face, freeing Princess from his grip and sending the demon flying.

Blaze flew next to Princess. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Thanks, guys." Princess replied. Then she and the Rowdyrock Boys resumed their attack on HIM.

*****

The first place Bubbles went was to Princess' stable. She had to make sure the horses didn't get caught in the crossfire. It was a miracle they weren't hurt when the original Bunny attacked Morbucks Manor, and Bubbles didn't want to chance it again. And Boomer, of course, followed her like a loyal dog.

Once they got to the stable, Boomer blew a hole in the wall large enough for the horses to escape through. Bubbles then let the horses out of their stalls and told them to run away. As the horses fled the stable, Brat and Bunny Clone B burst in through the ceiling, landing right in front of Bubbles and Boomer.

"Take care of that hussy, will ya?" At Brat's command, Bunny Clone B screamed and rushed Bubbles, overpowering her.

"Bubbles!" Boomer shouted. He turned to help her, but before he could, Brat grabbed his hand, spun him around and tossed him through the wall back into the hallway. She then floated over to Boomer as he was lying prone on the floor.

"We don't have to do this, you know." Brat smiled a flirty smile at him, then knelt down next to him. "How 'bout you forget that little tramp and run away with me?" she said as she stroked his chin.

Boomer grabbed Brat by her shirt and pulled her face right in front of his, scowling at her. "I'm a one-woman man!" Boomer got up and threw her against the wall. He then flew back into the stable to help Bubbles.

"Why are the cute ones always like this?" Brat grumbled as she recovered. She followed Boomer back into the stable, prepared to beat him senseless, only to find that Bunny Clone B had already pummelled both him and Bubbles. She stared at the blue heroes lying on the floor, then at the Bunny clone. "Wow, these things are amazing!"

*****

As HIM recovered from the Rowdyrock Boys' laser, he saw them and Princess coming in fast. He opened his mouth and shot at Bulk, but the green Rowdyrock Boy deflected it with a forcefield. HIM grumbled, then shifted focus to Blaze. The infernal one lunged at the Boys' leader and grabbed him by the neck. But before he could strangle the boy, Princess grabbed HIM with her tractor beam and lifted him off of Blaze, then slammed the evil one into the ground. Princess then flew up next to Blaze.

"Thanks." he said.

"I owed you one." Princess replied.

Bastion and Bulk were exchanging blows with HIM when Blaze and Princess rejoined the fight. HIM pulled back and waved his claw, conjuring a wall of fire between him and the heroes. The four of them flinched, but quickly realized they could just fly over the flames, which they did. Apparently HIM was getting sloppy. That was a good sign.

"Two can play that game." Blaze inhaled, then unleashed his fire breath right in HIM's face. With the demon blinded, Princess telekinetically grabbed a rock floating above him and slammed it down on the evildoer. Blaze then halted his attack.

When the dust settled, HIM was lying on the ground face-up. Bastion and Bulk each grabbed one of his claws while Blaze grabbed both of his legs.

"Good." Princess said as she hovered over HIM. "Hold him for me." She pulled out the star diamond she'd received from Santa.

"What's that?!" HIM demanded.

"An early Christmas present!" Princess took a deep breath, then channeled her Chemical X through the diamond to activate it. She then pointed it at HIM, and the Ultimate Evil was bathed in white light. He screamed and writhed in pain as his body slowly disintegrated. After a couple minutes of pure agony, HIM's body fully disappeared, and his spirit was sucked into the diamond.

Princess held the diamond up to examine it. She could see HIM's face in it, scowling back at her. Princess smirked at him. "That's what you get for underestimating me!"

_You treacherous little brat!_ HIM's voice echoed. _When I get out of here, you'll…!_ Princess pocketed the diamond, shutting HIM up.

"Alright!" Blaze high-fived Princess, then each of his brothers. "That just leaves the Powerpunk Girls."

"How do we get to Townsville?" Bastion asked Princess.

"This way." Princess gestured for the Rowdyrock Boys to follow her.

*****

Brute floated into the foyer of Morbucks Manor. She was followed by Bunny Clone C carrying Buttercup and Butch. Berserk, Brat and the other Bunny clones were there waiting for them, having already thrown the red and blue heroes' unconscious bodies into a heap in the middle of the floor.

"She went down way too easy." Brute gestured to Butch. "Probably went soft from dating this loser."

"So jealous." Brat mumbled.

"Well, whatever." Brute continued. She then gestured for Bunny Clone C to drop the green heroes into the pile. "At least we got our revenge."

"Not just yet." Berserk reminded her green sister. "Remember, we still have three more targets back in Viletown."

"Oh, I remember." Brat added. Berserk grumbled and rolled her eyes.

Moments later, Dick's monstrous form burst through the front wall, carrying the Chemical X-tractor into the foyer. He set it down over the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys. "Ready to go, boss."

"Perfect. I'll do the honors." Berserk grinned as she pulled the lever.

*****

Princess and the Rowdyrock Boys exited HIM's dimension and found themselves in the basement of the Otto Time Diner. Princess led the team upstairs into the kitchen and dining area. The Rowdyrock Boys paused and took a look around.

"The Ultimate Evil runs a greasy spoon diner?" Bastion asked.

"I guess everyone needs to make money." Princess speculated. She never really understood it herself, nor had she ever eaten here.

"Never mind that." Blaze said. "Right now, we have to track down the Powerpunk Girls and…"

"Forget it!" Bulk interrupted. "We've been wandering around that horrible place for like three days. I'm tired and I'm hungry."

"Yeah, can we take a break?" Bastion asked his leader.

Though Blaze hesitated to admit it, he was a bit worn out as well. "Alright. I suppose we've earned it." he said as he took a seat in one of the booths.

"Good." Bulk replied. "I'm gonna go make us some burgers." He then floated back into the kitchen.

Bastion was about to sit down, but then he noticed Princess taking a seat across from Blaze. He let out a tiny smirk. "Um… I'll help." He then went to join Bulk in the kitchen.

Princess glanced over to the green and blue brothers as they left the room. "They're a real hassle, aren't they?" she asked Blaze.

"Yeah, well, they're my brothers. I don't really have a choice." Blaze replied. "Bulk makes great burgers, though. Sorry if it's a bit pedestrian for your tastes, you being a princess and all."

"No, that's just my name. I am obscenely rich, though."

"Ah, that makes sense."

"What?"

"Never mind."

"Pft, whatever." Princess scoffed. "So, what's the deal with you and the Powerpunk Girls?"

Blaze then told Princess the story. Years ago, the Powerpuff Girls were sucked through a portal and taken to the Powerpunk Girls' dimension. After a brief misunderstanding, the defender of Viletown, Jomo Momo, teamed up with the Powerpuff Girls to dethrone the Powerpunk Girls' father and tyrannical ruler of Viletown, Oppressor Plutonium. Jomo then took charge of the city. To keep the Powerpunk Girls in check, he created his own super-powered children, the Rowdyrock Boys. Jomo's sons have protected Viletown from the Powerpunk Girls and other criminals ever since.

Several weeks ago, the Powerpunk Girls had disappeared off the face of the planet. After some investigation, Jomo found that they'd been taken to another dimension. The heroic chimpanzee fired up his old interdimensional portal and sent Blaze, Bastion and Bulk to recapture the Girls and prevent them from wreaking havoc in other worlds. Unfortunately, the interdimensional trail led the boys to HIM's world, where they'd been hopelessly lost for days before Princess found them.

Once Blaze finished telling his life story, Princess returned the favor. She told him about how she'd wanted to be a Powerpuff Girl ever since kindergarten, and had concocted numerous failed schemes over the years trying to become one. Or barring that, to destroy the real Powerpuff Girls for rejecting her. Then a few months ago, she finally got her lucky break during the Abomination incident. Not only did she gain superpowers, but she managed to convince the Powerpuff Girls and their new boyfriends, the Rowdyruff Boys, to let her join them, albeit as a probationary member.

"… But then I blew it when I atomized the Powerpunk Girls." Princess finished. "Of course, HIM was the one who…" She noticed that Blaze had zoned out. "Um, are you…?"

"Sorry, did you say they're dating each other?!"

"Yep." Princess replied flatly. "I'd say you get used to it, but you really don't."

"Jeez." Blaze shook his head. "So, what about you? Have you found your prince yet?"

"Nah. Guys tend to find my beauty and charm too intimidating." Princess bragged, then immediately regretted it. "Sorry, old habits." She broke eye contact with Blaze and sighed. "I know the real reason."

"C'mon, you just defeated the Ultimate Evil." Blaze said. Princess turned back to him. "As far as I'm concerned, you're a hero now." he continued, smiling at her.

Princess smiled back. "Well, I couldn't have done it without you." She and Blaze stared at each other for a brief moment.

"Soup's on!" Bulk came bursting out of the kitchen, carrying four plates of burgers and fries. Blaze and Princess broke eye contact as Bulk set their food in front of them. He and Bastion then took their seats in the same booth.

Once the awkward moment passed, Princess took a bite of her hamburger. Surprisingly, it lived up to the hype, though the fries, not so much. She then took a moment to appreciate that the Rowdyrock Boys, superheroes from another dimension, had accepted her as an ally, and maybe even as a friend. It gave her hope that the heroes of this dimension might eventually see her the same way.

After finishing their meal, Princess and the Rowdyrock Boys stepped out of the diner. The Boys still had to track down and defeat the Powerpunk Girls, and were counting on Princess to help.

"So where do we start looking?" Bastion asked.

"Don't know." Princess replied. "I've been out of town for the last couple weeks."

"In that case, we should rendezvous with the Powerpuff Girls." Blaze said. "They might know what's going on."

"Be careful, though. The Rowdyruff Boys might get jealous." Princess joked. Blaze, Bastion and Bulk grimaced, still trying to wrap their heads around it.

Before the four heroes could take flight, they saw three streaks of light coming towards them. The Rowdyrock Boys instinctively braced themselves. Princess noticed them and followed suit. Seconds later, the Powerpunk Girls touched down. It looked like the heroes wouldn't have to search the city after all.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" Berserk complained upon seeing her arch-nemesis. "And things were going so well for us."

"Well, too bad." Blaze responded. "You three are wanted for outstanding crimes."

"Bastion, did you come all this way just to see me?" Brat giggled, then smiled at her Rowdyrock counterpart. "You shouldn't have."

"Ugh, this again." Bastion grumbled, rubbing his right temple.

"What are you complaining about?" Brute sarcastically asked Berserk, then turned to face Bulk. "I could use a real challenge today."

"You know I'm always up for it." Bulk cracked his neck and put up his fists.

Princess stepped forward, but Blaze gestured for her to stop. "We'll keep them busy. Go get reinforcements."

"Alright." Princess replied after a brief hesitation. She then flew off in the direction of the Utonium house. Blaze then turned back to face Berserk, but noticed her cackling under her breath.

"What's so funny?" Blaze demanded.

"Oh, nothing." Berserk replied. Then she and her sisters charged at the Rowdyrock Boys.

*****

As Princess flew over Townsville, she noticed several beams of light shooting out of Morbucks Manor. She halted mid-flight and turned to look at her house. Suddenly, three consecutive explosions of white light burst from the mansion, forcing Princess to shield her eyes. When Princess dropped her arm, she saw that Morbucks Manor had been destroyed yet again.

"Aw, man." she complained. Then she continued on her way.

Moments later, she touched down at the Powerpuff Girls' front door. Before ringing the doorbell, she hesitated. She hadn't seen the Powerpuff Girls or the Rowdyruff Boys in weeks, and she wasn't sure if she was ready to face them yet. But despite being nervous, she couldn't keep Blaze and his brothers waiting. She took a deep breath, then rang the doorbell.


	8. Chapter 8

Princess stood at the Utoniums’ front door. The tension was killing her. She hadn’t had any time to prepare for this, and had no idea how the Powerpuff Girls would react to seeing her, especially seeing as how they’d parted on bad terms. Apologies were also new territory for Princess, or at least genuine apologies were. Hopefully her peace offering would make it go down easier.

Princess reached into her pocket and pulled out the star diamond that she’d imprisoned HIM in. “How’re you holding up?” Princess asked sarcastically. “It’s a bit crammed in there, I’d imagine.”

 _Don’t think you’ve won yet!_ HIM replied. _I’ll get out of here one way or another!_

“Sure you will.” Princess scoffed. She then channeled her power into the diamond. HIM screamed in agony as the diamond lit up and seared him again. “Now keep quiet, or there’s more where that came from.” Princess smiled a faint smile. Torturing the Ultimate Evil helped to relieve some of the stress.

Eventually, Professor Utonium answered the door. To Princess’ surprise, he seemed rather distraught. Actually, distraught was an understatement. He looked like he was barely holding together. “Hi, Princess.” he said quietly.

“Uh, hey, Professor.” Princess replied. She paused, feeling uneasy. “So, uh, where are the Girls?”

The Professor turned away from Princess. “You’re too late.” He covered his eyes with his hand as tears began to well up. “They’re gone.”

Princess gasped. “What?!”

*****

At Berserk’s instruction, Dick lifted the dome of the Chemical X-tractor up off the floor. Berserk then looked down on the pile of sugar, spice and everything nice that used to be the Powerpuff Girls, smirking triumphantly. She turned her head slightly to look at the snips, snails and puppy-dog tails lying on the floor, the remains of the Rowdyruff Boys. “Too easy.”

“I knew your plan would work.” Brute clapped her hand on Berserk’s shoulder. “Short, simple and straight to the point. That’s how you do it.”

Berserk brushed Brute off, then looked up. “Hey, HIM, if you’re watching us, you might want to take notes!” She paused. “Hmph, no answer. Oh, well. Time for the next phase.”

“What’s that?” Dick asked as he reverted to his human form.

“Well, you’ve got Chemical X, and you’ve got your factory. I’d say you’re back in business.” Berserk tossed the keys to Dick. “Put us down for 3000.”

“Okay, but it’ll cost you.” Dick replied, smiling with greed.

“No problem.” Berserk said. “Make the invoice out to Oppressor Plutonium.”

“Oh, I see.” Brute said. “We make an army of Powerpuff Girls, take it back home and use it to crush Jomo and the Rowdyrock Boys and put dear old Dad back in charge, right?”

“Just until he foots the bill for the army.” An evil grin crept onto Berserk’s face. “Then we’ll overthrow him and rule Viletown ourselves.”

“First thing I’m gonna do is make the Rowdyrock Boys my personal servants.” Brat said with a blissful grin.

Berserk and Brute rolled their eyes. “Sure, whatever.” Berserk scoffed.

Brute then gestured to the Bunny clones. “Hey, what do we do about them?” she whispered.

“Oh, right.” Berserk pointed to Bunny Clone A. “You, go to the stable.” She then pointed at Bunny Clone B. “You, go to Princess’ bedroom.” Lastly, she pointed to Bunny Clone C. “And you, go to Mr. Morbucks’ office. All of you stay there and await further instructions.”

“Bunny Clone A/B/C do good!” the clones shouted in unison. Then they left the foyer and flew to their designated rooms.

“That’ll cause the most damage once they explode.” Berserk said, then turned to Dick. “Take the Chemical X and go get started on our army. And _don’t_ skimp on the ingredients this time.”

“You got it, boss.” Dick transformed into his monster form. He then picked up the vat of Chemical X and carried it out the foyer.

Berserk turned to her sisters. “As for us, let’s go back to the Otto Time Diner and inform HIM of a job well done.”

Brat and Brute nodded in agreement. The Powerpunk Girls floated up to the large hole in the wall that used to be the Morbucks’ front door. Before they could leave, Brat heard something coming from the coat room in the foyer. “Hmm?” She floated over to the closet door and opened it to find one of the Morbucks’ maids cowering in fear. “Who’s this?”

Berserk and Brute floated in front of the maid. “Nobody important.” Brute said. “Let’s crush her.”

The maid gasped, but Berserk gestured for Brute to stop. “No, wait.” Berserk grabbed the maid by her collar. “We need someone to spread the word that Team Powerpuff is dead. Think you can do that?”

“Uh, y-yeah…” the maid replied, trembling.

“Good. Now get going before this place explodes.” Berserk threw her to the ground. The maid got up and ran outside as fast as she could. Then the Powerpunk Girls flew away.

*****

 _Hmm, they actually pulled it off. Not my preferred method, but credit where credit is due._ HIM said upon hearing what happened from the Professor, who was now leaning against the doorframe sobbing uncontrollably. _I should’ve brought the Powerpunk Girls to Townsville years ago._

Princess didn’t respond to HIM. She simply stood there in shock, face blank and arms limp at her sides. After taking a moment to process it, she turned away from the Professor and stared up into the sky. “So that’s it, huh?” Princess said to no one in particular. “I spend all that time up north trying to better myself, and then they go and die on me.” Tears started to well up in Princess’ eyes. “I shouldn’t have even bothered. I should’ve just stayed at home.” Princess sniffled. “Maybe then I could’ve helped. Maybe then they wouldn’t…” She couldn’t even finish. She collapsed to her knees, screaming and pounding the ground with her fist, causing a sizable dent in the pavement. Then she burst into tears.

 _Oh, what are you crying about?_ HIM asked sarcastically. _This is what you’ve been trying to do your whole life._ Princess held the star diamond in front of her, glaring at HIM’s face in it. _You should be celebrating. All you and your new boyfriends have to do is beat Dick and the Powerpunk Girls. Then they’ll go home and you’ll be the only superhero in Townsville. All the fame, all the glory and all the admiration will be yours and yours alone. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?_

Though Princess didn’t say it, HIM was right. Or rather, he would’ve been right a few weeks ago. But Princess had changed. She no longer fought crime to boost her ego. Now she had vowed to use her powers to make up for her past mistakes, and because fighting evil was the right thing to do. “Sorry, HIM, but I’m not like that anymore.”

 _If you say so._ HIM rolled his eyes. _Doesn’t matter anyway. The Powerpuff Girls and their boy toys are dead, and you can’t do anything about it._

Princess realized something. She stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes, still holding the diamond in front of her face. “But you can.” she said with a smirk.

 _Hmph, as if I’d ever resurrect them._ HIM scoffed. _Not even if you beg me._

“In case you didn’t notice, I’m the one in control here!” Princess activated the diamond again, but this time, instead of channeling her power into it, she used it to absorb some of HIM’s power into her body. “See? It works both ways.” she boasted, having guessed right. She then floated up and stretched out her other hand. In response, a red haze began to appear on the ground.

Professor Utonium looked up. "Princess, what are you…?"

"I'm gonna bring them back!" Princess' eyes began to glow red, as did the diamond while HIM screamed in agony. Princess pointed her free hand towards one spot on the ground and flicked her wrist six times. The pavement in front of her cracked open and two rock formations burst out of the ground, kicking up a large dust cloud. Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup stood atop one of them while Brick, Boomer and Butch stood atop the other.

The Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys looked around and at each other, dumbfounded. The last thing they remembered was their fight with the Powerpunk Girls at Morbucks Manor, but now they were suddenly standing on a couple of outcroppings in front of the Utonium house. Bubbles was the first of them to speak up. “What happened to…?”

“Girls! Boys!” All six of them looked down to see the Professor standing in front of the door, arms outstretched and crying tears of what they assumed to be joy.

The six super-children floated down in front of him. “Professor, what…?” Blossom began, but was cut off when the Professor pulled her and her sisters in for a group hug. The Rowdyruff Boys just floated there awkwardly, still without a clue what was going on.

“I’m sorry.” the Professor said after he eventually let them go. “It’s just… I thought I’d never see you again after Dick and the Powerpunk Girls killed you.”

“They what?!” Buttercup shouted. Her and her teammates’ eyes widened in shock.

“So you resurrected us?” Brick asked.

“No, actually, it was…” The Professor pointed to the dust cloud behind the heroes. All of them turned around. The dust subsided to reveal Princess looking back at them.

“Princess… you did this?” Bubbles began.

“Yep! It was all me!” Princess boasted. She then bit back the urge to rub it in or gloat any further. Old habits die hard, apparently. Instead, she looked away from Team Powerpuff. “Look, I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching lately, and, well, I get why you didn’t want to make me a Powerpuff Girl. I know I messed up with the Dynamo thing, and I’m sorry. And I’m sorry for my part in that Beat-Alls reunion, and going overboard with that parade, and for all those ‘birthday presents’ over the years, and buying the city, and putting everyone else on the naughty list, and…”

“Save it.” Buttercup interjected. “We’d be here all day.”

Blossom sighed. “And I might have jumped the gun on kicking you off the team. I’ve thought about it, and I realized we couldn’t have beaten the Abomination without you. And it’s not like we’ve never accidentally blown up large chunks of the city.” Blossom took an uneasy glance at the Rowdyruff Boys. “Or our enemies.” she added.

“It was HIM’s fault, anyway.” Brick said. “He’s the one who set it all up.”

“Well, we won’t have to worry about that anymore.” Princess held up the star diamond and showed it to the rest of the team. All of them reeled back in shock at the revelation that Princess had defeated and imprisoned the Evilest of Evil.

“Whoa, you seriously beat HIM?!” Boomer asked.

“Well, I had some help from…” Princess suddenly stopped when she felt a sharp pain in her left temple. She shut her eyes and winced for a moment, but as suddenly as it came, her headache vanished.

“Are you okay, Princess?” Bubbles asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just…” Princess’ face went blank. “Oh my gosh, I totally forgot! We have to go help the Rowdyrock Boys!”

“Who?” Brick asked.

“I’ll explain later.” Princess replied as she pocketed the star diamond. “Right now we have to get to the Otto Time Diner and stop the Powerpunk Girls.”

“Then there’s no time to waste!” Blossom turned to her father. “Professor, did you finish rebuilding your containment ray?”

The Professor tugged at his shirt collar. “Uh, what are you talking about, Blossom? I don’t…” Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup all glared at him. The Professor let out a sigh. “Yeah. It’s in the lab.” He then led Team Powerpuff inside and down to his laboratory. The containment ray, which he’d accidentally invented years ago for the purpose of detaining the Rowdyruff Boys, was sitting on a table in the center of the lab. After some trial and error, the Professor had managed to build a new one for the exact same purpose as before.

“Good.” Blossom said as she inspected the device. “We can use this to stop the Powerpunk Girls.”

“But then there’s Dick Hardly.” Brick pointed out. “I guess we’ll need some Antidote X.”

“Sorry, I’m out.” the Professor said. “I had to use it for, uh, something else.”

“Well, we’ll think of something.” Buttercup said.

“In the meantime, you kids better suit up.” The Professor opened up the storage closet where he kept Team Powerpuff’s super-suits. “They’ll prevent Dick from draining your Chemical X again.”

Princess was the first to grab her suit. She saw that the Professor had made one with fingers for her. “Ah, much better.” she said as she looked at its sleeve.

“Good, these should…” Brick turned to the Professor. “Wait, are these rigged?”

“Um, well…” the Professor stammered.

Bubbles took a look at Boomer’s suit, then pulled a cartridge filled with Antidote X out of the back. “Professor…”

“Well… they used to be villains.” the Professor said, that being the only excuse he could come up with. “I’m not entirely sure we can trust them.”

“You didn’t rig my suit.” Princess said offhandedly.

Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup shot their father a disapproving look. The Professor hung his head and sighed. “I’ll leave you alone.” he said before turning around and exiting the lab.

Butch pulled the Antidote X cartridge out of his suit, then turned to Princess. “So, is there any chance we could move back into your place? I’m not sure we’re safe here.”

“We’ll talk once they rebuild it.” Princess then balled her hand into a fist. “ _Again_.” she added through clenched teeth.

*****

After an unexpectedly long battle, neither the Powerpunk Girls nor the Rowdyrock Boys managed to gain any ground. Such was the usual result of them being too evenly matched.

“Ugh, this always happens.” Bulk complained to Blaze. “Where are those reinforcements?”

“Oh, they’re not coming.” Brute answered with an evil grin. “We already destroyed them.”

“Such a shame.” Brat added. “Boomer was even cuter than you.” she said to Bastion. Then she continued attacking her counterpart before he could process what Brute just said.

Blaze cursed himself. The heroes of this dimension had been destroyed at the hands of the Powerpunk Girls. If he and his brothers had gotten here earlier, maybe they could’ve stopped it. It was his duty to keep the Powerpunk Girls in check, and he blew it. At least there was one hero left to help. But what was taking her so long?

Suddenly, the familiar chill of Berserk’s ice breath snapped Blaze out of his thoughts. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quick enough to dodge and he was frozen from the neck down. Unable to fly, he fell to the ground, lying face-up on the pavement.

“What’s wrong, Blaze?” Berserk asked sarcastically as she landed in front of him. “Don’t get all mopey just ‘cause you couldn’t stop us. It’s not your fault Jomo made you so weak and useless.”

Blaze scowled at her in response and blasted his laser eyes at her. She dodged effortlessly, then took a deep breath, preparing to freeze his head, too.

“Hey, Powerpunk Girls!” Berserk heard a disturbingly familiar voice call out to her from behind. She gulped, nearly choking on her own ice breath, then she and her sisters turned around to see the Powerpuff Girls, the Rowdyruff Boys and Princess Morbucks floating above them. All seven were wearing the Professor’s super-suits. “Surprised to see us?!” Blossom continued.

“What?!” Brat shouted.

“We killed you!” Brute added.

“Yeah, well, it’s nothing a little deal with HIM won’t fix.” Buttercup said. She realized the ironic echo would’ve been better if Dick was around, but it was too good to pass up.

“And by the way, he can’t bring you back anymore.” Princess pulled out the star diamond and brandished it at the Powerpunk Girls. She quickly pocketed it before HIM could say anything.

“So what’s it gonna be?” Brick asked. “Unconditional surrender, I assume.”

Berserk clenched her fist, then let it go. It was three against ten. She and her sisters didn’t stand a chance, especially with their safety net trapped in a rock. Despite all her careful planning, the enemy team’s sheer numbers left her no other choice. “Fine, we surrender.” Berserk hung her head and put her hands in the air. Brat and Brute reluctantly did the same.

The seven heroes landed, then Blossom pointed the containment ray at the Powerpunk Girls. She then fired, detaining them with the device’s tractor beam. “You three are under arrest.”

Meanwhile, Princess approached Blaze. She struck the ice chunk he was trapped in, shattering it and freeing him. Then she grabbed his hand and helped him up.

“Thanks.” Blaze said. “But you know, I could’ve melted the ice myself.”

“Yeah, well, I just…” Princess stammered. Blaze smiled at her, thanking her with a light jab on the shoulder.

Butch turned his attention to Bulk. “So, where’d you handsome-looking guys come from?”

“Viletown. Same as these chumps.” Bulk replied, gesturing to the Powerpunk Girls. He then turned to his leader. “Looks like our work is done here. Now can we go home?”

“Actually, we’ve still got one more villain to take care of.” Princess said. “We could use your help.”

“Of course.” Blaze replied, almost as a kneejerk reaction. Bulk grumbled under his breath while Bastion smirked.

Blossom stepped forward carrying three of the spare super-suits. “Here, you guys better suit up.” She handed one to each of the Rowdyrock Boys. “These’ll prevent your Chemical X from being drained.”

“Thanks.” Blaze said. He and his brothers went inside the Otto Time Diner to change.

Blossom turned to Berserk. “Now where’s Dick Hardly?”

*****

Immediately after finishing up at Morbucks Manor, Dick had stolen a semi-truck from Mr. Morbucks’ garage, loaded the Chemical X-tractor into it and drove off. He then went to Malph’s and used the money he stole to buy out their entire stock of sugar, spice and everything nice. Very soon, the Powerpuff Girlz Xtreme would be back on the market, and Dick would be filthy rich again.

Dick drove his stolen truck to the gate leading to his old factory. He parked, then exited the truck and unlocked the gate. Gazing upon his old factory, which had long since been rebuilt and refurbished by Mr. Morbucks, Dick paused and tried to work out the logistics of transporting his literal truckload of Powerpuff Girl ingredients over the precarious land bridge. Then he remembered that he had Chemical X powers now and could just carry the load himself. He transformed into his monster form and opened the back of the truck trailer.

As he grabbed a tank of Chemical X, a beam of white light shot out of the sky and destroyed part of the land bridge. Immediately after that, the Rowdyrock Boys flew between him and the gate, blocking his way. Dick turned around and looked up to see the Glorious Shining Dragon looking down on him, ready to fire another beam. Dick froze in a combination of awe and terror.

“This is your only chance, Dick!” Blaze shouted. “Give up, or we attack!”

“C-c’mon, I’m just trying to do some honest work here. You guys can’t…” Dick stopped when he realized he wasn’t fooling anyone. Even in monster form, he knew he was no match for the Dragon, but at the same time, he couldn’t just surrender when he was this close to making a fortune. He looked at the tank of Chemical X in his hand. He was going to use it for production, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Dick broke open the tank of Chemical X and took a swig from it. The Rowdyrock Boys and the Dragon reeled back in horror. Having ingested more Chemical X combined with the stuff already in his system, Dick grew even larger and gained even more super powers. Blaze, Bastion and Bulk flew out of the way as the Dragon blasted Dick with another laser, but Dick disappeared before getting hit. He reappeared in the air above the Dragon.

“Flight _and_ super speed?!” Dick said to himself. “I should’ve used this stuff on myself years ago!” He then landed on the Dragon’s back and latched onto it with his monstrous tentacles. The Rowdyrock Boys flew up to try and get him off, but Dick blasted Blaze and Bastion out of the air with super-charged eye beams. Bulk was able to block the beams with his shield, but Dick lashed his now-prehensile ponytail at Bulk, breaking the shield and ensnaring the green Rowdyrock Boy. Then he threw Bulk to the ground to join his brothers. The Dragon then tried to buck Dick off of it by jerking around, flying upside-down and doing barrel rolls, but to no avail.

Although he preferred to use the Chemical X-tractor, Dick’s tentacles were capable of draining Chemical X from others. Of course, any Chemical X taken this way would be directly absorbed into his body rather than extracted into a usable form. But right now, he needed to take care of Team Powerpuff, and was in just the right position to do it. Having heard about the Abomination incident from HIM, he knew that the Professor’s suits didn’t work in combined forms. With that in mind, Dick activated his tentacles, attempting to leech the Chemical X from the Dragon and hopefully absorb some pesky Powerpuffs into his system.

The Glorious Shining Dragon roared in pain, but quickly separated into the seven members of Team Powerpuff. “That was way too close!” Brick shouted.

“Watch out!” Blossom shouted to her boyfriend.

“Huh?” Brick was knocked out of the sky when Dick flew up and punched him at full force. Boomer and Butch then fired their lasers at Dick, but they simply bounced off his invulnerable hide. Dick turned around and retaliated with his own eye beams, taking out the two remaining Rowdyruff Boys. And before they could do anything, Dick grabbed Bubbles and Buttercup with his tentacles, slammed their heads into each other and threw them into a nearby building.

Dick turned his attention to Blossom and Princess, the only two heroes left in the fight. He took aim and blasted a gigantic laser at the two redheaded girls, who quickly took cover behind a pile of wrecked cars.

“I don’t believe this!” Princess complained. “We’re losing to _Dick Hardly_ of all people!”

“Well, we underestimated him eight years ago and almost died for it.” Blossom responded. “Help me come up with a plan.”

“What’s the point?” Princess asked rhetorically. “If we couldn’t beat him with the Glorious Shining Dragon, what are we supposed to do? Face it, he’s too powerful for us.”

“This coming from the one who beat HIM?” Blossom replied.

“I did, didn’t I?” Princess pulled out the star diamond. A devious grin crept onto her face as she stared HIM down.

 _Losing to Mr. Hardly, I see._ HIM’s voice echoed. _I knew resurrecting him was a good idea._

“Yeah, well, you’re gonna help me correct that mistake.” Princess clutched the star diamond in her fist.

Blossom caught on to what Princess was about to do. “Wait, are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean…”

“It’s all we’ve got!” Princess took a deep breath, then activated the diamond, channelling HIM’s power into her body again. Her eyes began to glow red, and a gold aura emanated from her body. She then floated up and emerged from her and Blossom’s hiding spot. The Rowdyrock Boys had rejoined the fight and were dodging Dick’s attacks. Just before Dick could strike Blaze, Princess blasted the villain with a supercharged yellow laser, knocking him into the water next to his factory.

Moments later, Dick resurfaced to see Princess floating above her. “Well, this is interesting.” Dick floated out of the water. “Nice to see one of you has some fight in them.”

“Shut up!” Princess bellowed. She then used HIM’s power to make herself bigger, growing to around 25 feet tall to match Dick’s height. Then she grabbed Dick by his neck and threw him back to the shoreline. Dick retaliated with another laser blast, but Princess put up her hand and deflected the laser with a mere thought. Princess then flew straight at Dick and slammed into him at full force, sending him flying. But before he flew too far, Princess grabbed him with her tractor beam and brought him back for more pummelling.

As Princess wailed on Dick, the other nine heroes floated up behind her. “Remember, Princess, we…” Blossom began.

“I know, we don’t kill people. Not even this monster.” Princess got up and telekinetically pinned Dick down. At the same time, she glanced over to the Chemical X-tractor. Tapping into HIM’s power once again, she waved her hand at the device, and its dome grew large enough to trap Dick’s monster form. Not only that, but it grew legs and began moving towards Dick. It then jumped up, trapped the villain underneath it and affixed itself to the ground.

“Ah, good idea.” Brick said.

“I’ll do the honors.” Buttercup floated over to the controls and pulled the lever. Dick screamed in pain as the machine sapped the Chemical X from his body. After several minutes of sheer agony, all of Dick’s power was gone, and he reverted to his blonde-haired, bespectacled human form, lying face-down and groaning with exhaustion.

Princess waved her hand, and both she and the Chemical X-tractor shrunk to their original sizes. She telekinetically lifted the dome off of Dick, then floated in front of him, the other heroes right behind her. Dick looked up at her and tried to transform, but to no avail. He hung his head back down and gave up.

“By the way, you’re about eight years behind on your loan payments.” Princess snidely reminded Dick. “With all that interest, I’d say you owe…” Princess suddenly winced, closing her eyes and clutching the sides of her head. Then she fell to her knees and doubled over, crying out in anguish.

The rest of the team fell silent from what just happened. Blaze was the first to speak up. “Princess, are you…?”

Princess got up and turned to her teammates, who recoiled in horror. Her face was red, her ears were pointed, her cheeks had turned rosy, and she’d grown a black goatee. “Heh, heh, heh, heh!” she cackled, but in a voice that wasn’t her own. “Guess who’s back?!”


	9. Chapter 9

“HIM!” Blossom shouted. “What have you done with Princess?!”

“Whatever do you mean?” HIM replied in his typical cordial tone as he floated up to the rest of the team. “I didn’t do anything. It was Princess who channeled me into her body. She should’ve known better than to mess with powers she couldn’t control.” He ran Princess’ hand through her auburn hair, turning it jet black. “It can have dire consequences.”

“Enough!” Blaze shouted, glaring at HIM. He gestured to his brothers, then all three of the Rowdyrock Boys readied their eye beams. “Get out of her body right now! Or we’ll…”

“Or what? You’ll shoot me?” HIM interrupted. “You hurt me, you hurt Little Miss Moneybags, too. So what’s it gonna be?”

Blaze glared at HIM, but realized there was nothing he could do. He sighed, then his eyes stopped glowing and returned to normal. Bastion and Bulk followed suit.

“Thought so.” HIM held up Princess’ arms to inspect the body he was currently inhabiting. He wasn’t used to having hands instead of claws, and Princess was rather short compared to HIM’s original body. He also didn’t much care for the gaudy gold-crown-and-silver-jumpsuit ensemble Princess was sporting. “Hmph, it’s not ideal, but I suppose it’s better than being stuck in that rock.” HIM shrugged. “Well, no matter. I’ll just be on my way.” He raised Princess’ hand in an attempt to conjure a portal back to his home dimension.

But before a portal could appear, HIM winced. Princess’ hand closed into a fist, and HIM’s features disappeared. Princess’ hair and face returned to normal as she regained control of her body. “Guys… help… me…” Princess struggled to speak.

“It’s okay.” Bubbles assured her. “We’re here to help.”

“C’mon, fight it, Princess!” Buttercup shouted.

“I’m trying, but…” Princess suddenly screamed. Her whole body convulsed and her head shook rapidly as HIM retook control. The demon’s features reappeared on Princess’ face.

“Stubborn little brat.” HIM scoffed. “I must not be at full strength yet. Part of my soul still remains trapped.” He pulled out the star diamond and raised it above Princess’ head, about to smash it on the ground. “But not for long.”

Suddenly, Boomer whacked Princess on the back of the head with his energy bat. HIM mumbled some incoherent gibberish before falling unconscious. The rest of the team all looked at Boomer. “What?” the blue Rowdyruff Boy shrugged.

“Boomer, you idiot.” Brick reprimanded his brother, kind of as a kneejerk reaction.

“Actually, I think that was the right move.” Blossom said. She floated over to Princess’ body, which was twitching uncontrollably. HIM’s features disappeared and reappeared at random intervals. Even though they were both unconscious, it looked like Princess and HIM were still fighting for dominance. Blossom picked up the star diamond and turned to the Rowdyrock Boys. “Where did she get this?”

“No idea.” Bulk replied.

“She said it was an early Christmas present.” Blaze added. “Does that mean something in this dimension?”

The Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys all paused. “You don’t think…?” Brick began, but stopped himself when he heard a twig snapping behind him. He and the rest of the team turned around to see Dick Hardly trying to tiptoe away.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Buttercup called out.

Dick slowly turned back to face the heroes, sweating profusely and tugging at his shirt collar. “Uh, I just figured you guys were…” Everyone else glared at him. Dick hung his head and let out a defeated sigh. “I have to go to jail now, don’t I?”

Brick floated over to Dick and grabbed him by his shirt collar. “Blossom, come with me. The rest of you, get Princess to the North Pole.” At Brick’s command, Blossom handed Bulk the star diamond, then Blaze picked up Princess and flew north, along with the rest of the team.

*****

Princess awoke in her bedroom back at Morbucks Manor. As she got up, she felt a throbbing pain on the back of her head. She rubbed it with her hand, and after a few seconds, the Chemical X in her system dulled the pain to nothing. As she looked around, something seemed wrong. Morbucks Manor had been destroyed when those Bunny Clones exploded, so unless she’d been out for several days while they rebuilt it, something weird was going on here.

As Princess got out of bed and stepped into the hallway, she felt an uneasy presence. “Daddy?” she shouted. No answer. “Jeeves? Carmichael? Alfred?” Again, no answer. Princess sighed. “Mom?” she said reluctantly. Then silence. It seemed like Princess was alone here, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t.

Princess wandered around the manor to make sure, and when she couldn’t find anyone else, she stood in the foyer to gather her thoughts. The last thing she remembered was using HIM’s power to defeat Dick Hardly. But then HIM took over, and she struggled against him for control of her body. Princess had no memory of winning or losing that struggle. With the gap in memory, and that throbbing pain she felt earlier, did that mean…?

 _Right you are._ HIM’s voice echoed throughout Morbucks Manor. _Boomer knocked us out, and this is all in your head. Or should I say,_ my _head once I assimilate you._

“Oh, please!” Princess scoffed. “Do you really think you can beat me?!”

_You? Effortlessly. It’s especially easy to overtake those who are already rotten to the core._

Princess winced slightly. Even though she’d tried her hardest to overcome her past follies, she still had some lingering self-doubt. But she knew that HIM preyed on his victims’ insecurities like that, and she couldn’t let him win. “You’re wrong, HIM!”

 _Am I? The Princess Morbucks I know certainly fits the bill._ The foyer of Morbucks Manor faded away. Then Princess found herself in Pokey Oaks Kindergarten. She saw all her old classmates, including Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, but apparently she was invisible to them. Then she saw her five-year-old self standing in the front of the room next to Ms. Keane. She knew where this was going and felt sick to her stomach. _Let’s watch, shall we?_

“Everyone, can I have your attention?” Ms. Keane said. “I'd like you all to give a nice, warm welcome to our new friend, Princess Morbucks.”

“Hi, Princess!” the class shouted in unison.

“Hmm.” The five-year-old Princess merely scowled back at them. Then she began wandering around the classroom, scoffing at her classmates and bragging about her Daddy’s wealth.

Princess’ current self cringed as she watched this memory play out. She wanted to tell her past self to stop, but she knew that wouldn’t work. Then it came to the part where the Powerpuff Girls saved the class hamster. When the past Princess said that she would be a Powerpuff Girl too, Blossom rejected her. Then came the part that the current Princess dreaded.

“What?!” the past Princess shouted. ”You can’t just blow me off like some common peon! I’m Princess, and my Daddy buys me anything I want! _And I wanna be a Powerpuff Girl!_ ”

 _See my point?_ HIM taunted Princess, who had buried her face in her hands. He then let the memory continue. Princess winced as she watched the tantrum she threw in front of her father, her failed attempt to stop a bank robbery, and ultimately her defeat at Blossom’s hands.

“… And you, little girl, have done nothing worthy of the name ‘Powerpuff’!” Blossom scolded Princess before sending her to jail.

_The truth hurts, doesn’t it? Even back then, they knew you’d never be a hero._

Princess put on a strong front. “Is that the best you’ve got?”

 _Not even close._ Princess surroundings changed again. Now she found herself in Santa’s workshop, watching her younger self break stuff and go off on Santa Claus while Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup looked on in horror.

“Oh, no.” Princess muttered. She averted her gaze as Santa grabbed her younger self by the ear and dragged her into the next room.

“Princess, you have gone and worked my last nerve!” Santa yelled. “I have no other choice. You are so rotten, so despicable, so naughty, I’m putting you on the Permanent Naughty Plaque!” Both Princesses stared at the Plaque with dread. “Bum-bum-bummm!” Santa then touched his finger to his nose, and Princess’ name was engraved into the Plaque.

_I can’t say I’m a fan of that old coot, but when he’s right, he’s right._

Princess scowled. “He said I'd changed.”

 _Really? Are you sure he wasn’t just sick of wasting his time on a lost cause?_ HIM replied. _I mean, why else would he shoo you out and send you to my dimension on a suicide mission?_

Princess’ eyes widened. “What?!”

_You know, without the Rowdyrock Boys helping you, I would’ve slaughtered you in a matter of seconds. Face it, kid! Santa was just trying to do the world a favor and get rid of you. And who could blame him? The last thing Townsville needs is an annoying, entitled, insufferable, spoiled little brat like you!_

Princess winced again. Was that true? Was she truly irredeemable? Santa said she’d gotten better, but he must’ve been lying. He was the one who put her name on that Plaque, after all. Maybe HIM was right. Maybe she was never meant to be a Powerpuff Girl. Maybe everyone would be better off without her.

As Princess became mired in self-loathing, HIM bombarded her with more painful memories. She curled up in a fetal position as the memories played out, forcing her to relive all her evil deeds. Tears welled up in her eyes as she slowly lost the will to continue. She closed her eyes, ready to surrender herself to darkness.

But then she remembered what Blaze said to her back at the Otto Time Diner. She’d told him about her past villainy, but despite all of it, he still saw her as a hero. If he and his brothers could accept her, then maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe she could break the cycle of evil after all. No, she _had_ broken the cycle! She was no longer the spoiled brat she was in those memories.

Princess uncurled from the fetal position, then focused her thoughts, blocking out the surrounding noise. When she opened her eyes, the memories HIM was showing her had faded away. She found herself back in the foyer of Morbucks Manor, and wasting no time, bolted through the front door.

*****

While Brick and Blossom were busy taking care of Dick at Townsville jail, the Rowdyrock Boys and the rest of Team Powerpuff flew towards the North Pole. It had been difficult for Blaze to hold on to Princess’ body due to the constant convulsions. He’d nearly dropped her five times, significantly delaying a flight that could normally be made in a matter of minutes. The seven heroes weren’t sure if the spasms meant Princess or HIM was winning.

Eventually, the heroes touched down at the North Pole in front of Santa’s workshop. Having no time to wait at the door, they barged in to find Santa Claus and two elves waiting for them. Bubbles was the first to speak. “Santa, Princess is…”

“I know. I saw the whole thing.” Santa interrupted. “That was pretty reckless of her, using HIM’s powers like that.”

“She didn’t exactly have a choice.” Blaze said as he set Princess down on the sofa. Her body was still shaking and HIM’s features continued to disappear and reappear. “How else was she supposed to beat Dick Hardly?”

“Or bring us back?” Buttercup added.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, she did the right thing. But we still have to deal with this, and quickly.” Santa turned to the two elves. “Quarion, Ivellios, take her to the infirmary.” At Santa’s command, the elves placed Princess on a stretcher and carried her off. Santa and the heroes followed them.

Once they reached the infirmary, another elf awaited them next to a hospital bed. As Quarion and Ivellios placed Princess on the bed, Santa turned to the third elf. “Anastrianna, this girl used HIM’s powers and…”

“Say no more, Santa.” Anastrianna replied. She then pulled a small felt bag out of her pocket and sprinkled the powder inside it all over Princess, which caused her to stop twitching and lie still. “Paralysis dust. It’ll keep her still while she deals with HIM. Where’s the star diamond?”

Bulk pulled out the diamond and handed it to Anastrianna. The elvish doctor then placed it in Princess’ right hand. “There we go. Now all we can do is wait.”

“Will she be okay?” Bubbles asked.

“It depends.” Anastrianna replied. “When she absorbed HIM’s power from the diamond, she also took in a part of his soul as well. HIM thrives on fear, hatred, self-doubt and other negative emotions, and right now he’s trying to use the darkness in Princess’ heart to destroy her spirit and take over her body.”

“Welp, she’s doomed.” Butch said off-handedly.

“Not necessarily.” Anastrianna said. “If she can overcome HIM’s corruption, she might be able to push HIM out and back into the diamond. But she’ll have to do that on her own. There’s nothing more I can do for her.”

The other heroes watched Princess silently. There was no telling what would happen next. The pain of being unable to help her was unbearable. They looked on with worry as Santa escorted them out of the infirmary.

*****

Blossom and Brick carried the Professor’s containment ray into an empty jail cell. Being caught in the tractor beam, the Powerpunk Girls were forced to move with it. Once the three of them were in the cell, Blossom closed the cell door and locked Berserk, Brat and Brute inside.

“This won’t hold us forever.” Berserk warned her Powerpuff counterpart.

“Won’t have to.” Blossom replied. “You’ll be extradited back to your own dimension once we get the portal working again.”

“But as for you…” Brick added as he turned to face Dick Hardly, who had been placed in an adjacent cell. “You’ll be in here for a _very_ long time.”

Dick merely hung his head and grumbled under his breath. He was so close to making it big again, but now he had nothing. Not even the loot he stole from Morbucks Manor, which had been seized by the cops. And on top of that, he still owed an insane amount of money to Mr. Morbucks, which he doubted he’d ever be able to pay off. A part of him now wished he’d never come back to life.

Blossom and Brick floated towards the warden’s office to have a look at what Dick and the Powerpunk Girls stole from Morbucks Manor. On their way there, Brick stopped when they passed by Mojo Jojo’s jail cell. He decided to mess with his creator a little. “Hey, Pops. How’s it going?”

“Do not refer to me as your father!” Mojo shouted back. “You are no longer my son by virtue of the fact that I have formally disowned you and your treacherous brethren for having renounced, given up, and outright abandoned the purpose for which you were created!”

“Yeah, whatever. I just stopped by to remind you that we’ll be visiting for Thanksgiving next week.” Brick then floated next to Blossom and put his arm around her shoulders. “Oh, and I’ll be bringing my girlfriend along, too.” He then turned to Blossom, who looked back at him, completely befuddled. “If that’s alright with you, Sweetie.”

Blossom raised her eyebrow. “‘Sweetie’?” Before Blossom could say anything more, Brick ran his free hand down the side of her face, leaned in, closed his eyes and kissed her on the lips. Blossom’s face went beet-red, but she returned the kiss anyway. After pulling apart, the red couple turned to look at Mojo, who was seething with anger.

“It was bad enough that you had refused to destroy the Powerpuff Girls, but for you and your brothers to have become romantically involved with them is simply inexcusable! I, Mojo Jojo, will not stand for any creations of mine forming romantic relationships with…”

Brick led Blossom away from Mojo’s cell, leaving the villain to his incoherent rambling. The boy laughed as he and Blossom continued on their way.

“Was that the only reason you brought me here?” Blossom asked.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Brick admitted.

Blossom shook her head, but as Brick looked away, she let out a small smirk. Though she wouldn’t admit it, a part of her kind of enjoyed seeing Brick rub the irony in Mojo’s face like that. She decided to take Brick up on that offer and visit Mojo with him next week.

The red couple entered the warden’s office to find the stolen goods laid out on his desk. “Is this everything?” Blossom asked.

“Yep.” the warden replied. “This is everything Mr. Hardly and those phony Powerpuff Girls had on them when you brought them here.” Blossom and Brick took a good look at the stuff. It was mostly cash, jewels and precious metals, the kind of stuff you’d expect to find stashed in the Morbucks’ vault. Naturally, all of it would be returned to them shortly. Though there was one thing that caught Brick’s eye.

“Hey, what’s this?” He gestured to a scrap of paper with a list of random items on it. It seemed out of place next to all those super-valuable objects.

“Don’t know.” the warden replied.

Blossom picked it up and took a look at it. Her eyes widened with realization as she read the list. “These are… This is what Bunny’s made of!”

“Really?” Brick responded.

“It has to be! How else could they have made those clones if they didn’t have a list of ingredients?” Blossom turned to the warden. “Hey, can we keep this?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Yes!” Blossom pumped her fist, then turned back to Brick. “If we give this to the Professor, he might be able to stabilize Bunny!”

“I hope so.” Brick replied. As happy as he was for Blossom, he did remember that they had a more pressing matter to attend to. “But I think we should go check on Princess first.”

Blossom sighed. “Right, I guess that’s a bit more urgent, isn’t it?” With that, the red couple burst through the roof of the building and flew north.

*****

Upon exiting the illusory Morbucks Manor, Princess found herself in a ghastly abyss. Everything around her looked like static on a TV, except for the random lines and geometric shapes floating around. Fortunately, she still had her Chemical X powers, and floated onto a platform nearby. She looked around for a moment, but didn’t see HIM anywhere. So instead, she tried to draw him out.

“Hey, HIM, I beat your stupid mind games!” Princess shouted into the void. “Was that really the best you could do?!”

 _I must say, I wasn’t expecting you to survive this long._ HIM replied. _But I’m not finished with you yet!_

“Ooh, I’m shaking.” Princess retorted. “I’ve beaten you twice before, and I’ll beat you again this time!”

_Only because you had help! Without the others, you’re useless!_

“This coming from you?!” Princess shouted back. “What kind of ‘Ultimate Evil’ constantly gets his head handed to him by little girls? It’s no wonder you always needed minions to do your dirty work. You’re the useless one, HIM.”

Princess fell silent for a moment. She could make out HIM’s faint grumbling. That was a good sign. She then continued berating HIM.

“The other Beat-Alls, the Rowdyruff Boys, the Powerpunk Girls, Dick Hardly… You had to rely on all of them, and even they couldn’t beat the Powerpuff Girls. But I gotta say, they came way closer than you ever could. Face it, HIM! You’re the most pathetic villain of them all!”

That seemed to strike a nerve. HIM slowly appeared in front of Princess, claws up and ready to fight. “We’ll see who’s pathetic!”

Princess smirked, having succeeded in drawing HIM out into the open. He was almost as narcissistic as Princess’ former self. Thanks to that, Princess knew from experience how to get under an egomaniac’s skin. Now that she had HIM where she wanted, she put up her fists and prepared to attack.

*****

Bubbles, Boomer, Buttercup, Butch and the Rowdyrock Boys sat in Santa’s waiting room, all worried about Princess to varying degrees. Unfortunately, waiting was all they could do at the moment. Like Anastrianna said, Princess would have to fight HIM off on her own.

Bubbles, of course, trembled with worry. It was in her nature to fear for others’ safety like that, even someone who until recently had been their enemy. Boomer placed his hands on her shoulders in an effort to calm her down. “It’ll be okay.”

Bubbles turned to Boomer and threw her arms around him. “You always know just what to say.” She then pressed her face against his and they nuzzled each others’ noses.

“Good Lord, that’s disturbing.” Bastion said.

“Yeah, we get that a lot.” Boomer replied, not taking his eyes off of Bubbles. Then without missing a beat, the blue couple leaned in, closed their eyes and began making out in front of everyone.

“Seriously?” Bastion turned to Butch and Buttercup. “No filter, huh?”

“Nope. And believe me, they could go on like that for hours.” Buttercup replied.

“So what’s the deal with you guys?” Bulk asked Butch, hoping that starting up a conversation would diffuse some of the tension. “You were created to destroy the Powerpuff Girls and now you’re dating them? What happened there?”

“Not much to say. We just got bored with the whole villain thing, so we figured we’d try being heroes instead. I gotta say, it’s a much better deal.” Butch put his arm around Buttercup’s shoulders. “Plus, chicks dig the hero types.” Buttercup smacked Butch, then he let go.

“A little too much if you ask me.” Bastion mumbled.

“Brat, huh?” Buttercup asked. Bastion nodded in response.

“I keep telling you, you should totally go for it.” Bulk said to his blue brother.

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen.” Bastion replied.

“C’mon, throw Brat a bone. Maybe it’ll bring her around to our side. Seems to have worked for them.” Bulk gestured to Bubbles and Boomer, who were still lost in their own little world. Bastion merely shook his head. Bulk then turned to his other brother. “Blaze, back me up on this, will ya?”

Blaze shot Bulk an irritated look. “In case you forgot, our friend is fighting off demonic possession. I’m not in the mood for this whole dating-your-enemies thing right now.”

Bulk recoiled a little. “Jeez, what crawled up your…?”

Suddenly, the front door flew open. Blossom and Brick floated in. “Sorry we’re late.” Blossom said as Brick shut the door behind them.

“No worries.” Santa replied as he stepped into the room. “I know you had to take care of those criminals.”

“How did you…?” Brick began, but then stopped himself. “Right, that stupid song.”

“So, what’s going on with Princess?” Blossom asked.

Santa filled Blossom and Brick in on what Anastrianna had told the others. He also explained to the whole team that Princess had come here seeking Santa’s advice on how to break her pattern of self-destruction and be a better person. She deeply regretted all the evil she’d done, and she wanted to do something to make it up to everybody. That was why she asked Santa for the star diamond and went after HIM.

“Wow…” Blossom said softly. “I had no idea. She took on the Ultimate Evil all by herself just to make amends?”

“Hey, we helped!” Bulk interjected. “She would’ve been massacred if it weren’t for us.”

“And if it weren’t for her, we’d still be wandering around HIM’s world.” Blaze retorted. Bulk scoffed at his brother. “It’s a good thing she happened by us.”

“Actually, that was my doing.” Santa said. “You guys seemed lost, so I sent you a little help. Seems like it worked out for everyone.” The Rowdyrock Boys all shot weird looks at Santa, but he simply turned to Blossom and continued. “Listen, I can’t force you to make her a Powerpuff Girl or anything, but I can put in a good word for her. Princess has been trying really hard these past couple weeks. Believe me, there’s plenty of good in her.”

“Really…?” Blossom took a seat, needing a minute to take all this in. If Santa said Princess had changed, how could Blossom argue with that? After all, who understood naughty and nice better than him? And the fact that Princess wanted to change so badly that she’d ask Santa for help, especially after that incident when they were five…

“I hate to be a wet blanket, but that’s not gonna matter if she can’t fight off HIM.” Brick reminded the group. “What do we do if he takes over?”

“It’s not gonna happen.” Blaze said confidently. “She’ll pull through.”

Brick shot his Rowdyrock counterpart a strange look, but decided to leave it for now. He then sat down, thinking up a contingency plan in case Blaze was wrong.

*****

HIM made the first move. He opened his mouth and shot a laser at Princess. She flew out of the way, but HIM’s sustained laser beam moved to follow her until she took cover behind a floating platform. Once HIM closed his mouth to recharge, Princess took the chance to shoot a laser of her own back at HIM, hitting the demon square in the chest. He stumbled back, but vanished as soon as he regained his footing.

“Running away, huh?” Princess taunted.

Suddenly, HIM manifested behind her. “Hardly.” He reached out his claw and grabbed Princess by the throat. Then he pinned her down on the platform they both stood on. Princess grabbed HIM’s pincers with her hands, fighting to prevent him from strangling her.

Princess glared at HIM, then shot her tractor beam from her crown. She telekinetically grabbed HIM’s head and slammed it into the ground. Stunned, HIM loosened his grip on Princess, allowing her to break free. She then punched and kicked him several times before dealing a massive blow to his face, launching him onto another platform about thirty feet away.

HIM stood up and snarled at Princess. “Alright, playtime’s over!” The King of Darkness raised his claws, attempting to transform into his super form. But he only managed to grow a couple inches before it stopped. “Huh?” he mumbled to himself.

Princess sneered. “Not at full strength, are you? This’ll be even easier than I thought.” Princess blasted her yellow laser at HIM. The demon countered with his own mouth laser. The two beams pushed back against each other until Princess won out, hitting HIM in the face with the combined force of both their lasers.

Wasting no time, Princess shot a few more lasers before rushing at HIM. She delivered another frenzy of kicks and punches, then reeled back to deliver the final blow. As HIM stood there, struggling to stay up, Princess charged her yellow laser. HIM then regained his footing just as Princess shot him with her fully charged beam. The laser went straight through HIM’s torso, leaving a large hole in it. HIM looked down at what was left of his chest. As he looked back up, his eyes rolled to the back of their sockets, then he keeled over and fainted.

*****

Anastrianna tended to another elf in the infirmary, who had electrocuted himself while working on a remote-control car. After she finished applying burn ointment, she went back to check on Princess. As Anastrianna prepared to take Princess’ pulse, the star diamond began to glow in Princess’ hand.

“Santa!” Anastrianna called out to her boss. Moments later, the big man himself entered the infirmary. The two of them walked over to Princess’ bedside, and Anastrianna gestured to the diamond. “She did it! She beat HIM!”

Santa smiled proudly. “I had a feeling she would. I’ll go tell the others.” He then left the infirmary.

*****

As Princess stared at HIM’s limp, unconscious body, her surroundings began to fade to white. She looked around and noticed the random lines and shapes around her becoming unstable and falling into the abyss below. Afraid that the one on which she stood would fall too, she floated off of it and hovered above HIM.

Soon enough, the platform beneath her crumbled and fell, taking HIM with it. He fell into the white light below, which Princess recognized as the light produced by the diamond. Realizing what this meant, Princess let out a victorious smile. “It’s over.” she said as she closed her eyes. “It’s all over.”


	10. Chapter 10

Princess awoke in an unfamiliar room feeling somewhat groggy. She tilted her head up to see a number of other beds, some occupied by injured elves. Apparently she was back at the North Pole, in the infirmary from the looks of things. Before getting up, she thought back to her battle with HIM, and a smug smirk crept onto her face. She’d beaten the Ultimate Evil yet again, and this time it was permanent.

“Well done, Princess.” An elf stood next to her bedside. Princess recognized her as Anastrianna. “You’ve got your body back, I see.”

“Yeah, but…” Princess tried to lift her arm, but the most she could do was twitch her fingers. “Why can’t I move?”

“I used some paralysis dust on you while you were out.” Anastrianna replied. “It should wear off in about an hour.”

“Thanks, I guess.” Princess mumbled. “Wanna tell me what’s going on here?”

Anastrianna filled Princess in on everything that had happened while she was out. As she finished up, the Powerpuff Girls, Rowdyruff Boys and Rowdyrock Boys all floated into the room, having heard from Santa that Princess had recovered.

Blossom was the first to speak up. “How’re you feeling, Princess?”

“Eh, I’ve been better.” Princess tried to shrug, but her arms were still paralyzed. She grumbled under her breath.

“I knew you’d beat that pathetic excuse for an Ultimate Evil!” Blaze said, then turned to Brick. “Told you we didn’t need a contingency plan.” Brick simply rolled his eyes in response.

Princess smiled, grateful that Blaze had believed in her. Without that memory giving her hope, she might have succumbed to HIM’s mind games. “Thanks, but I’d still rather not go through that again.” Princess tilted her head towards the Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys. “Next time you guys die in battle, you’re on your own.”

The six heroes bit their lips, deciding to let Princess have that one. “Yeah, I guess we do owe you our lives, don’t we?” Blossom admitted.

Princess smirked. “Well, HIM helped.” she replied sarcastically. She then looked around and noticed the star diamond was missing. “Hey, where is he?”

“Santa’s taking care of it.” Anastrianna answered.

*****

Santa pounded in one more nail, finishing the new shelf he’d put in next to the Permanent Naughty Plaque. He then took the star diamond out of his pocket and placed it on the shelf. “There. The perfect place for you to spend the rest of eternity.” Santa said to HIM.

_If you think this’ll hold me, you’ve gone senile, old man!_ HIM screamed. _I’ll get out of here one way or another!_

“Yeah, that’s what you said last time. Face it, HIM. Your time is up.”

HIM sighed, conceding defeat. Though he’d never have admitted it even to himself, a part of him knew that someday the countless eons of causing chaos and misery would eventually catch up to him. And it was only fitting that Santa Claus would play a part in HIM’s downfall. He was the Ultimate Good, after all. But like HIM, Santa couldn’t act directly, instead having to work through others. While HIM had always expected Santa to use the Powerpuff Girls, that wasn’t how things ended up playing out.

_I never would’ve guessed that Morbucks brat would be the one to do it. She used to be such a good little villain._

“Yep, looks like we both underestimated her. Which reminds me…” Santa lifted his finger and tapped his nose. In response, the name Princess Morbucks was crossed off the Permanent Naughty Plaque. “I think she’s earned another chance, don’t you?”

HIM scoffed, then took a look at the plaque, eyeing the Princess’ crossed-out name. He then looked below it and saw that Santa had added a new name sometime in the past few years. _Who the heck is Jared Shapiro?_

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” With that, Santa exited the room, leaving HIM to his eternal imprisonment.

*****

Princess looked out at the crowd as she floated onto the stage. It seemed like most of Townsville had gathered to see her. Even Santa had made the trip down here. It was certainly a much bigger turnout than that stupid parade she threw for herself, and only now did she understand why. She then turned her attention to the rest of Team Powerpuff, who were also standing on the stage, and touched down in front of Blossom.

“Princess Morbucks, you’ve done a lot of good in these past few months. You’ve helped bring down the Abomination, you’ve fended off monster attacks, you’ve saved our lives, and perhaps most impressively, defeated HIM once and for all.” Blossom took out a heart-shaped medal. “For these reasons, you’ve proven yourself worthy of the name ‘Powerpuff’.” Blossom gave Princess the medal. “As of right now, you are officially a Powerpuff Girl!”

The crowd applauded. It continued for about a minute, then died down once Princess approached the podium. Princess cleared her throat, then delivered her acceptance speech.

“Thank you, thank you! While I admit I had some help…” She eyed Santa and the Rowdyrock Boys in the crowd. “…It’s true that I’ve done plenty of good deeds lately. But as most of you know, I’ve done far more evil in the past. I wanted the same glory and adoration you gave the Powerpuff Girls, and I had no idea why they deserved it and I didn’t. I tried to destroy them and many of you out of jealousy, and I have no excuse for my actions. But now that I’ve been given this second chance, I swear to do as much good as it takes to make up for my past deeds. And then I’ll keep going! I’ll do everything in my power to keep the world safe, and to live up to the name ‘Powerpuff’!”

The crowd roared with applause. Princess smiled from ear to ear, almost crying tears of joy, now that she finally had the one thing she’d dreamed of her whole life. To be a Powerpuff Girl.

*****

“That should do it.” Professor Utonium said as he finished setting up his interdimensional portal. He then had Blossom plug in the machine while Buttercup switched it on. Once she did, a rainbow-colored vortex appeared within the arch.

“Thanks, Professor.” Bastion said.

“Finally. It’s been a whole week.” Bulk added. “Now can we go home?”

“Keep your pants on. We still have to wait for the others.” Blaze replied as he typed in the coordinates for Viletown, which he read off a piece of scrap paper Jomo had given him before sending the Rowdyrock Boys off. Blaze took a second to appreciate his creator’s preparedness.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. “Bubbles, would you get that, please?” the Professor asked.

“Okay.” Bubbles flew out of the lab. She returned a couple minutes later with Princess and the Rowdyruff Boys, who were transporting the Powerpunk Girls from Townsville Jail using the Professor’s containment ray.

“Well, if you kids are all set, then I’ll get to work on this.” the Professor said as he held up the list of Bunny’s ingredients. He then put on his coat and stepped into the walk-in freezer.

“Don’t think you’ve seen the last of us!” Berserk shouted to Team Powerpuff.

“We’ll be back!” Brute added, seething.

“You can count on it.” Brat said flirtily, her attention on Boomer. The blue Rowdyruff Boy didn’t respond.

“That’ll be after you spend a few decades in Viletown Maximum Security Prison.” Blaze retorted, then turned to Princess. “Well, I guess this is goodbye.” he said softly. “Congratulations again on making the team.”

“Yeah.” Princess replied. “Thanks for believing in me.”

“Hey, you coming or what?” Bulk said to his red brother.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” Blaze picked up the containment ray, then dragged the Powerpunk Girls to the portal. But just before they stepped through, he paused. “Wait, just a second.” Blaze handed the containment ray off to Bulk, then floated up to Princess. He then leaned in and kissed the yellow Powerpuff Girl. Everyone else looked at them dumbfounded, except Bastion (who smirked triumphantly), Bubbles (who gaped at them excitedly) and Brick (who gagged so hard he nearly threw up).

“Call me if you’re ever in Viletown.” Blaze said.

“Uh… yeah… sure…” Princess mumbled, her face almost as red as when she was possessed by HIM.

With that, the Rowdyrock Boys took the Powerpunk Girls through the portal, which then closed behind them. Everyone stood there speechless until the awkward silence was broken by Blossom’s phone ringing.

“Hello?” Blossom answered her phone. “A crime? Alright… Really? Okay, we’ll be right there.” Blossom hung up and pocketed her phone. “The Amoeba Boys just stole a grapefruit.”

“Wow, they’ve really upped their game.” Buttercup said sarcastically. The Powerpuff Girls and Rowdyruff Boys motioned to exit the lab, but then they noticed Princess floating there, staring at the portal.

“Hey, you guys think I could… um…?” she muttered, pointing to the portal.

Bubbles giggled. “Use it any time you want, Princess.”

“After we deal with the Amoeba Boys.” Blossom added. As the seven heroes flew off, the Narrator closed out the story.

“And so once again, the day is saved, thanks to Team Powerpuff! Although if I’m being honest, it was mostly Princess this time. Wow, never thought I’d say that.”

_**THE END** _


End file.
